‘The Vampire Diaries’ Execs Tease A Darker, Messier Season Seven

Warning: This article contains season seven spoilers for The Vampire Diaries.

Fans of The Vampire Diaries have been fretting over the future of the series since Elena Gilbert was sent into a restful slumber and Nina Dobrev moved on, but plans to bring TVD fans an exciting season are already underway. In a recent interview, Ian Somerhalder assured fans that Damon Salvatore will not be sulking in the darkest corners of the Salvatore estate, when The Vampire Diaries returns. In fact, Ian has said that TVD fans can expect a darker Damon in season seven, telling fans to expect a return to the Damon of The Vampire Diaries‘ first seasons.

Ian Somerhalder is not alone. At a recent convention, The Vampire Diaries executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson spoke in depth on the subject at a Q&A panel. Julie Plec was the first to give her take on the direction in which they plan to take The Vampire Diaries in the new season and how Damon will deal with essentially being on his own once again.

“What is the Season 1 version of Damon? The Season 1 version of Damon is the straight villain with what we learned was an obsession with a woman who just happened to look like our lead woman. And then over time that grew into a love story and it grew into a hero story and it grew into a redemption story. So, he went though all those chapters. He went through redemption. He went through hero – at least partially. The root of him as a sassy, ‘take no prisoners, do what you got to do to get it done,’ anti-hero is still very much there.”

It seems Damon will see an advantage to being without the love of his life, The Vampire Diaries exec implied during the panel.

“He now has more freedom to kind of be messy with his choices,” Plec added. “I think you’ll see a darker Damon with the sort of wisdom of his experience, but a freedom to act out as he may feel like he needs to.”

Kevin Williamson added that, while the character of Damon will once again be as volatile and dark as he was in the first seasons, TVD fans shouldn’t necessarily be expecting a repeat of the first seasons. Williamson added that the new season of The Vampire Diaries will “feel completely unlike what we’ve seen before.”

The Vampire Diaries will return in October on the CW network.

[Featured image: Ian Somerhalder courtesy of the CW network/The Vampire Diaries]