‘The Vampire Diaries’: Julie Plec On Those Zima Mentions

Bonnie, Damon, Kai and the Zima bottles from ‘The Vampire Diaries’ set (The CW/Access Hollywood)

Zima may no longer be on the market, but the mid-’90s alcoholic beverage has been name checked several times this season on “The Vampire Diaries.”

The clear drink, which had a brief heyday in the 1990s, before its rapid fall from grace, is a favorite of sociopathic witch Kai (Chris Wood), and the character even mentioned it when he tried to order a drink from Liv after his escape from 1994 to modern times.

On the set late last month, Executive Producer Julie Plec explained who was responsible for the nod to the booze product/punchline.

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“I think it was probably Brian Young who writes Kai’s voice in ways that — it’s just so delicious,” Plec said when AccessHollywood.com asked about the Zima nods in “TVD” during a reporter set visit. “And it made me laugh because I bartended in 1994. I had just graduated college and I was bartending for the summer and all these sorority girls would come in and order Zima, ’cause it was brand new and I was like, ‘What is this stuff? This is terrible!’ and so when I read it in the script I just thought it was hilarious.”

Kai recently made it out of the prison his coven put him in after he went on a family killing spree, and it appears he is going to stay the bad guy for the foreseeable future on The CW drama.

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“I think that everybody’s redeemable. I think that Kai in particular would be a difficult one to redeem, which is part of the fun if we decided to go down that road and wanted to see a different side of him,” Plec said when a reporter asked whether Kai was redeemable. “I think part of the creative fun would be exploring that, but right now he is very firmly rooted as the really aggressive and kind of a**hole-y antagonist for the season.”

“The Vampire Diaries” continues Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Production assistance provided by Warner Bros.

— Jolie Lash