Paul Wesley Reveals How He Really Feels About Stefan’s Fate on “TVD,” and Why It Makes Fans ‘So Angry’ (Exclusive)

• Paul Wesley is opening up to PEOPLE exclusively about his thoughts on the ending of The Vampire Diaries, eight years after the series ended

• The actor admits that he’s happy his character Stefan Salvatore died and that Damon and Elena ended up together in the 2017 series finale

• Wesley jokes that fans get “so angry at me” whenever he shares his opinion on the ending

Paul Wesley is sharing his take on the ending of The Vampire Diaries — and Team Stefan fans may not be too happy about it!

When the popular CW series ended in 2017 after eight seasons, fans were devastated as they watched Wesley’s character Stefan Salvatore tragically die so that he could save the other characters on the show.

In the final episode, the 171-year-old vampire — who was forever stuck in a 17-year-old’s body — sacrificed himself in order to stop the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Va., from getting destroyed by hellfire.

While some fans still aren’t over Stefan’s shocking death, Wesley, 42, tells PEOPLE during an exclusive interview about his partnership with Hone Health that he couldn’t be happier with how the show ended.

“Truthfully — and whenever I say this, people get so angry at me — I am so glad that he died,” he says. “It’s something that I was really pushing for.”

Defending his take, Wesley continues, “First of all, he had been alive for 160, 170 years, and I was like, ‘This guy’s story has got to come to an end.’ Then secondly, he had done a lot of bad things — even though he was a good guy — he did a lot of bad things.”

Wesley is referring to his character’s notorious reputation as a “ripper” — a vampire with a bloodlust problem who typically enjoys tormenting human victims.

While Stefan’s ripper past plays a part in Wesley’s opinion on the ending, he also has another reason for wanting his character to die. He refers to the famous love triangle between Stefan, Stefan’s brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and their characters’ love interest Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) to prove his point.

“From a superficial perspective, if Damon had died and Stefan had stayed alive and somehow ended up with Elena, I’d have to hear about that from Damon and Elena fans for the rest of my life,” he jokes. “I was so happy that I was not in that position.”

While he’s grateful that he’ll never have to be antagonized by ‘Delena’ fans, he adds, “I do think that the two brothers should have probably went out together.”

In the end, Damon gets his happy ending with Elena while Stefan makes the ultimate sacrifice to not only save the town, but also to make sure one of the show’s many villains, Katherine Pierce (also played by Dobrev), goes down with him.

The brothers do have a heartwarming reunion in the afterlife, leaving fans some comfort knowing that they eventually find their way back to each other.

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While taking a walk down memory lane, the actor admits that he actually relates more to another villain on The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s doppelganger Silas, whom Wesley also portrayed on the series.

“I am dry and I have dark humor,” he tells PEOPLE. “It’s not that I’m the villain, but I definitely am someone who looks at things from a different perspective.”

He continues, “Stefan was never laughing. He was always crying. And so, a lot of times, I’ll do Q&As with fans and things, and they’ll notice that I can be pretty sarcastic. And that is very much a quality of Silas.”

Read the original article on People