You’re not the only one who’s still drying her eyes over the announcement that Nina Dobrev is leaving The Vampire Diaries. Star of the CW’s upcoming The Messengers, Joel Courtney, is also up in arms over the news. “She’s the heart of the show,” the 19-year-old actor says. “I hope that the show can go on, but I’m not sure what they can do. I look forward to seeing what they do, do.”
The ginger-haired star of the new CW series, which premieres April 17, weighed in on a controversial topic: Is he team Stefan or team Damon? With Dobrev having dated her on-screen co-star Ian Somerhalder, many fans are still trying to ship Somerhalder’s Damon with her character Elena. But for Courtney, it’s all about sexy Stefan. “Because when Elena was with him, he didn’t make her change. She never regretted being with him,” he says. “With Damon there was always this history, this baggage. Yeah, Stefan was a ripper, but… She didn’t like [Damon] because of the crap he kept pulling. With Stefan he was always there trying to help her. Team Stefan!”
But unlike costars Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder, Courtney says it would take a lot for him to date someone he works with. “It’s definitely a rough area to go into just because if things do go wrong, things don’t work, things go badly, that’s just drama,” he says. “And honestly, I can’t stand drama other than that which I perform myself on camera. So I would be very hesitant to… unless it’s the right girl.”
The last time a large audience saw Courtney was in J.J. Abrams supernatural drama Super 8, where he played a small town boy sucked into unusual circumstances — involving aliens, of course. While his CW show doesn’t have aliens per se, it does involve angels and the rapture. Inarguably heavy stuff for the teen-slanting network. ”A lot of shit’s gonna go down,” Courtney says. “It’s gonna hit the fan.”
Courtney plays Peter Moore, a “regular teen” with a history of baggage. “Foster home to foster home, he was moved around a kid,” Courtney says. “He has a previous suicide attempt, it’s really dark for him. When a meteor crashes, there’s an energy pulse that goes through him and he dies, then he comes back to life. People think it’s another suicide attempt. It’s a misunderstanding and he’s brought together with The Messengers. They become kind of a family for him.”
So what does the show’s version of the Rapture entail? “Billions and billions of people die,” he says.
Intrigued? Us too. Tune in April 17th on the CW to catch the pilot episode of The Messengers.