*Note: This podcast contains explicit language.
Showrunner Julie Plec is having quite a moment. Her show The Vampire Diaries has been renewed for Season 7. The spin-off of that show, The Originals, has been renewed for Season 3, and she's also got a new pilot in play this year.
In a rare moment of calm, she stopped by KCRW to talk with Michael Schneider and Joe Adalian about everything from how she manages to oversee 44 new episodes a year, to the joys and challenges of dealing with very vocal fans on social media. She also tells us why in the writing world, she still feels like "brand" is a dirty word.
Plec also talks about Nina Dobrev's decision to leave The Vampire Diaries after her contract was up and why they decided to announce the news on Instagram. Plec says that while it's certainly difficult for a show to lose a main character, from a writing perspective, she's excited about new story opportunities she's now got the freedom to pursue.
While Plec is now a showrunner overseeing a vampire-related empire, she didn't start out at a writer. She shares how she got into the industry in the first place, and how her initial experience on the development side now plays into how she runs her shows.
We also look to the future -- Plec's got a pilot this year called Cordon, about a virus outbreak in Atlanta. At this point, she doesn't know if the show will get picked up, but she's got hopes that in the years to come, the whole pilot process itself will look very different.