‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 5: Ian Somerhalder teams with Norman Reedus for Mardi Gras

Ian Somerhalder grew up in Louisiana, so with that in mind, he really has to find it pretty fantastic to be given the chance to Grand Marshal one of the most-prestigious parades in all of New Orleans: Krewe of Endymion Parade & Extravaganza. This year, the event is going to be held on March 1, and he will be sharing his honor with none other than “The Walking Dead” star Norman Reedus.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Somerhalder has also seemingly found a way to incorporate his own style and his employer in “The Vampire Diaries” into the festivities. He is going to be handing out beads with show’s logo on them! The beads will appropriately be red, but given that this show airs on The CW (a network with a mostly PG-13 audience), we cannot imagine that any of the typical Mardi Gras activities are going to be involved in obtaining them.

In a statement to the website confirming the news, Ian had the following to say about getting the honor to take on this role:

“I am so excited to be coming back to my hometown to ride with Endymion … I am so grateful. It’s truly an honor.”

There are already some pretty big connections in between “The Vampire Diaries” and the city of New Orleans, at least in that this is the setting for the show’s spin-off “The Originals.” Ian’s character of Damon Salvatore hasn’t exactly spent much time in the Big Easy, though; instead, he is for the time being in the process of getting his bad guy on as he starts to slowly fall apart in the wake of everything that has happened with him. His craziness started courtesy of his breakup with Elena, and then there was everything that transpired with Katherine.

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Photo: The CW