Vampire Diaries boss explains why classic character was killed in season 5
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The Vampire Diaries boss Julie Plec has explained why the show had to kill off Elena's undead doppelganger Katherine Pierce in season five.
While appearing as a guest on the latest episode of Entertainment Weekly's Binge: The Vampire Diaries series, the executive producer recalled how they had to "negotiate for the right to let [Elena actor] Nina [Dobrev] play Katherine again because the season two Katherine [storyline] had really taken everything out of her."
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Plec went on to say that The CW "was being very protective" over Dobrev's work schedule by that point, and had even informed the team behind the supernatural drama that they weren't allowed to use Katherine anymore.
"We had to basically beg the network to let us even write story for Katherine," Plec remembered, noting that the introduction of a third Petrova lookalike "made the whole thing worth it" and how they had Katherine take over Elena's body for a several episodes in season five, which meant that Dobrev only had to play the one role.
"I literally think we had to say we'll kill her in order to get permission to use her," added Plec, noting that the decision came out of those back-and-forth meetings with the studio.
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On the podcast, Plec also revealed that they had Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) "die" together at the end of season five, as a way to acknowledge the characters' relationship in L J Smith's novels.
"Bonnie and Damon had a thing in the books we had sort of always said, 'We don't buy a romantic connection between Bonnie and Damon because Damon's just done too many terrible things and Bonnie just has more integrity than that,'" she said. "But we wanted to service that relationship in the canon a little bit."
The Vampire Diaries aired on The CW, and is now available to stream on Netflix.
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