The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries book series was published more than a decade before Twilight was released.

Still, critics have understandably dubbed the upcoming CW series a Twilight Saga knock off, due to the immense popularity of the latter franchise.

To those that make such statement, producer Kevin Williamson has a message: you're wrong!

"When I read the first book, I was like, I'm not doing this. This is Twilight. I don't want anything to do with it," the creator of Dawson's Creek told MTV. "And then I kept reading and kept reading and I realized, this isn't Twilight at all, this is actually where a girl falls in love with a vampire, but that's where [the comparison] ends. It's like a modern-day sexy Dark Shadows and that was appealing."

We agree. Tune in to the pilot on September 10 and you won't be able to turn away again.