Ending last season on that whopper of a teaser about the future of Mystic Falls, viewers were reeling at the implications, and naturally everyone is anxious to find out what Season 7 holds in store for the Salvatore brothers and their newly-found mother Lily (Annie Wersching), as well as Bonnie (Kat Graham), Caroline (Candice Accola), Enzo (Michael Malarkey), and Alaric (Matt Davis).



While attending this summer’s CBS/CW summer party at TCA, we caught up up with executive producer Caroline Dries to find out just what is coming in Season 7 of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:



What can you reveal about what the new season holds in store?

CAROLINE: Well, at the end of last season, we ended with a bunch of cliffhangers and the time jump. When you watch the premiere, we play with time a little bit. So at first everyone is going to be like, “Wait, what?!” That is what we are going to be doing this season — allow the audience to figure it out as the mystery unfolds. We are doing these flash-forwards to the future as we are basically laying out this mystery. Last season we left off where Stefan (Paul Wesley) kissed Caroline, Lily got her family back, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) said goodbye to Elena, and Bonnie and Damon had this beautiful moment where he basically picked his best friend over Elena, which was huge. So now we’re going to witness the fall-out of all these events.



Will Caroline and Stefan get together this next season?

CAROLINE: We are hoping she figures out that he is the world’s greatest boyfriend. But she obviously has her own drama to get through; and as we watch them get together during the course of the season, they are going to have to deal with some relationship complications that are unprecedented on the show. So they will be rattled by what they have to deal with. I think the audience will be like, “Oh my god!”



But the audience has become so immune to surprises because the show has pulled so many tricks out of its hat. Will they actually be surprised?

CAROLINE: They will be surprised. And everyone has been asking, “How do you deal with the loss of Elena (Nina Dobrev)?” Elena will still exist in the ether — our characters are still talking about her and thinking about her and still fighting for her.



Especially since Damon waited so long for Katherine. He will surely wait for Elena.

CAROLINE: Exactly! We bring up all that stuff. But, for now, it is a question of who is the third point in the Salvatore love triangle and that person is basically their mother. We have Lily becoming an integral part of this Mystic Falls world. Lily has come back into their lives and now exists in their world and there will be all kinds of points of view on her. She has a way of loving them and manipulating them and handles each of them differently; so this season becomes about their core family and can they all live in peace.



Since Lily has a quasi-son with Enzo, aren’t Damon and Stefan going to feel like they are being replaced?

CAROLINE: They do feel like she has this whole other family. Because Enzo is like a free-agent and Lily’s got her heretic family, and they are like, “What is going on here?” There is a real “us v. them” mentality and the heretics are the bad guys — and Lily and Enzo are friends with the bad guys.



Should we be worried that Damon and Enzo won’t be on the same side anymore?

CAROLINE: They have had a really deep past where they have gone through some real dramatic experiences. Last season Enzo was all lovely-dovey in reuniting with Lily and Damon was caught up with his drama with Elena and put on his blinders with his friends. So this season they will have scenes this season where they’ll be like, “Hey, what’s going on?” or “Dude, what’s up with you?” Twenty-two episodes is a lot, so there is time for them to come back as friends. But they are going to start off a little friction-filled moving forward.



One of the things we are kind of craving right now is more of the bromance: Stefan and his brother Damon, Damon and Enzo, and Damon and Alaric. How much will we see of the bromances?

CAROLINE: There’s going to be tons of bromance because Damon lost his girlfriend, so he basically leans Alaric’s shoulder to cry on and Alaric, incidentally, is going through the real-world version of what Damon is going through and they will cry on each other’s shoulders — in a manly way. But Damon and Stefan are really the core of the series. They have the main love story of the season. The person coming between them — or whatever you want to call it — at first it was Katherine, then Elena, and now that will be Lily. So they will come to blows on how to handle the drama Lily is bringing, but they will also realize, “You are all I’ve got.” That is kind of the love story.



What can you share about Damon’s viewpoint on his brother pursuing a relationship with Caroline? Is he Team Caroline?

CAROLINE: Damon is Team Caroline. He said that last season in the Thanksgiving episode, where he was like, “Dude, get your head out of your (expletive) ass. She is perfect. She has a crush on you. She likes you.” He knows she is perfect for Stefan and he waited all season for Stefan to figure it out. So he is rooting for them.



Damon seems to have a strong romantic streak, even though he doesn’t always like to show it, and he roots for romance whenever he can.

CAROLINE: I agree. Yes, he is a little cheese-ball there.



How about Enzo? Any romance for Enzo?

CAROLINE: Enzo, as you noted, is like Lily’s son and we’re going to kind of shake up that rumor a little bit. Like, is he like her son or is he like a hot guy? Lily is a beautiful woman. Is he attracted to her? So that is something that evolves.



Sounds like a great “forbidden fruit” relationship.

CAROLINE: I know, dating your best friend’s mom! It gets a little tricky.



And what about Alaric? He can’t just have a weeping, broken heart all season.

CAROLINE: No. I won’t spoil it, but Alaric is going to go through a great character arc in the first chunk of episodes where you realize that Jo’s death has really changed him and we’re going to really start to push the limits of reality. So he doesn’t have any easy time of it.



To find out just what the flash forwards reveal and what big changes lie ahead for Alaric, Stefan and Caroline, be sure to tune in for all new episodes of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES when it returns for Season 7 on October 8th, Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m. on the CW.



Also, if you haven’t had a chance to check out our video interviews with the cast and producers of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES from San Diego Comic-Con, here is where you can view those as well. Great scoop on Season 7!



LINK:



http://seat42f.com/the-vampire-diaries-comic-con-interviews.html