The Vampire Diaries: Mystic Falls Had A Completely Different Name In The Books
What is a teen supernatural series without a fictional town to set it in? "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has Sunnydale, "Teen Wolf" has Beacon Hills, and "The Vampire Diaries," of course, calls Mystic Falls its home. Founded by Civil War-era families that included a few vampires, the Virginia town is crawling with supernatural beings big and small. From vampires to doppelgängers to hybrids, the suburban region has a seedy underbelly. But the book series that spawned the CW vampire dynasty took a different approach to the town's name.
Adapted from L.J. Smith's collection of YA novels, "The Vampire Diaries" changed many things from the source material. One of the big developments was the name of the town — instead of Mystic Falls, the book is based in a town called Fell's Church. The name comes from the founding Fell family, Thomas and Honoria Fell. Though they are present in the television series, creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec made a decisive move to change the name of the town for a significant reason.
Fell's Church changed for the better
With its filming location in Covington, Georgia, "The Vampire Diaries" keeps to the spirit of the novels. However, early in the adaptation process, the showrunners decided to do away with the name of Fell's Church. The name itself does appear in the TV series but is instead given to the church that houses the vampire tomb. When it came to naming the town, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec wanted something that was a little less indicative of religion.
"No disrespect to Fell's Church, but it felt very based in religion and spirituality, and we knew we didn't want the show to be the kind of vampire show that's just about heaven and hell and demons and the devil and God — that kind of thing," Plec told The Hollywood Reporter. "We changed the name of the town arbitrarily."
Plec and Williamson were cutthroat with the changes they made from the book. Elena is more of a queen bee type whose designs on Stefan are ultimately because she can't have him. Though the writers did try to make her more empathetic, Elena is still ultimately a divisive character. This was one of several changes that didn't necessarily work as intended, but other aspects were more successful. Notably, the showrunners stayed away from more high concepts such as angels and religious aspects. Instead, they wrote a series with a more grounded mythology that resulted in many popular spin-offs.