The Vampire Diaries - Season 6 Interview With Julie Plec

I have to ask this, because I won’t believe it unless I hear you say the words: If the Other Side is gone, is Uncle Mason gone for good?
[Laughs] I think that may be one of the greatest tragedies of the disappearance of the Other Side is the permanent loss of Uncle Mason. Bye bye, dreamy [Taylor] Kinney.

But Mason isn’t the only one we’ve lost. By putting an end to the Other Side, and to Katherine and to the doppelganger storyline, does this season feel like a fresh start?
Yeah, without a doubt it feels like a fresh start—in that we’ve got a good time jump that takes us four months past where we left off. In the same way that the beginning of season five was about our characters had gone on and had their summer and were preparing for college and a new chapter in their lives, this is our characters having spent time trying to manage and cope with the loss that they all experienced both in losing friends, obviously, and just as profoundly losing access to their home for most of them. So we get to pop in and see how each individual person has dealt with it, what choices they’ve made to move on with their lives if at all, and how they are trying to move forward. Some are doing well; some are not. And when all is said and done, there are these looming questions of 1) Is there any hope for Damon and Bonnie to ever return to their world, and 2) Is there any hope that they’ll be able to literally go home again?

With the loss of Damon and Bonnie at the end of last year, were you all at all worried about the show feeling too dark when it returns?
We’re trying to be true to people’s individual feelings without having it be the season of depressive grief and loss. Nobody really wants to see that. I think what will be fun to see is that some of our characters have really blossomed in the interim, whether they’ve just decided to sort of take life by the horns and make the best out of it and have really come into their own, and some characters are pretending very well to be coping. But as we peel back those layers of their journey a little bit, we’ll see that maybe they’re struggling a bit more than we think. There’s a nice combination of all different scenarios.

Now that Mystic Falls has become this human bubble, what’s life like for its residents?
Certainly any witch could walk into Mystic Falls and live a perfectly happy life; they just can’t live it as a witch. So really it’s the vampires who, if they cross over that border, will face certain death. Everybody else kind of goes in knowing that if they go in there, they’re temporarily relinquishing any access to their supernatural abilities. But yes, Matt and Jeremy in the beginning right when we check in with the town are the representative of the human bubble, and Mystic Falls, that’s the irony is it’s probably never been a better place to live. [Laughs] It’s kind of reverted back to this bucolic, small, sleepy town with low crime rates and certainly a much lower death rate and an absence of animal attacks, and there’s a little bit of fun we have with that in the beginning in the first episode because we get to see the difference between what the town used to be like versus what it is now. And I think that when Sheriff Forbes’ biggest task is busting a pair of campers drinking beer as opposed to picking up their slaughtered bodies off the camp grounds, then you can see that things have really changed.

I feel like Sheriff Forbes might get a little bored.
Speaking of Sheriff Forbes, one of the sort of sweet and sentimental and a little bit bittersweet things is that of course Caroline, who was Miss Mystic Falls in every way you look at it, can’t go back home, and so we have this great scene where Caroline is sitting at the border with her mom having a picnic lunch and we realize that she’s been doing that every day all summer long and it’s her way of trying to hold on to this town that meant her so much to her that she can’t get back into. It’s very sweet.

In terms of Damon, I so loved his speech in the finale about peaking. He seemed at peace, so my question is, is he going to want to come back after coming to terms with leaving in such a beautiful way?
I think Damon believed— in that moment, as his life was ending—that he had lived the life that he wanted and gotten what he wanted. Without explaining too much about the mystery of where he is, he didn’t end up where he thought he was going to be—whether that was, in his mind, hell, heaven, or some like warped dimension of Damon doppelgangers. Where he ended up is so surprising and so strange and mysterious, even to Damon himself that it becomes about 1) figuring out where they are, and 2) how do they get out of it? And those drives are triggered by, “Hey, if there’s a chance I can get back home and get back to my girl, then that’s what I want. Get back to my girl and get back to my brother.”

Will the Damon-Bonnie mystery be solved by the first chapter of the season?
The mystery of where they are is an ongoing presence throughout the whole season, but trying to figure out what the heck they’re going to do about getting home is the crux of our first chapter.

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The Vampire Diaries - Season 6 Interview With Julie Plec 2

How long will it be before we find out where Damon and Bonnie have been and presumably when they'll be back?

The answer of what happened is part of the season-long mythology, but the mystery of where they are is going to be asked very quickly and answered soon enough to not be frustrating.

Can Elena really move on?

What happened to her is that in spite of losing her parents and her brother, her aunt, her friends again and again, she lost the person she singularly believed to be the man she was going to spend all of eternity with. I think there's a special form of grief that comes attached to that, which will be difficult to get past, but also the choices she makes at how to move on will be very interesting to watch.

Will she and Stefan lean on each other over their shared loss?

Well, speaking of coping mechanisms, each of them have a very specific method of how they're dealing with it and they find a strange appreciation of each other's methods even though they're not necessarily healthy. They connect over the fact that sometimes it takes extreme choices to move past something that has hurt you so deeply. So we will see their friendship able to be strong and healthy in spite of the way each of them individually are dealing with their loss.

Last season began with the start of college. Will Elena and Caroline try to resume normalcy in being a couple of college kids?

That's the goal. The problem is they didn't just lose their friends, they lost their town. They can't go home again, so college in its own way should be this haven for them where the friends can be together but not everyone wants it to be that easy and not everyone is that willing and ready  to settle in and say, "OK, let's move on." So we'll be wanting to see our friends find a way back to each other and move past the trouble they brought upon themselves and get back to their home. And in the meantime, it's going to be what each of them is doing to make that happen.

How does Caroline handle everything?

Caroline is probably someone who will surprise you. She's taken this loss --  in a weird way almost the hardest -- so she's going to have to bounce back in her Caroline way. Who she bounces back with and how she does it and how she's living her life is revealed in the first episode. Her journey is where are all her friends and if only she could figure out a way to bring them all back together, get the magic back to Mystic Falls, find a way to bring Damon and Bonnie home than life would be perfect. But it's harder than she thought.

With Alaric back, how does he fit in or is it hard for him to find his place?

Alaric is struggling a little bit. He was turned into a breed of original vampire and then set on a killing mission and then he died, so after being a weird vampire and a ghost for all this time he's assimilating into his life as this creature he never wanted to be. But he's still trying to be the human that he was and it's not easy for him. There might be some help and assistance that comes in the form of a woman he'll meet, and he and Elena are closer than ever, which is great because she has somebody in her life she can really rely on and they can share their grief together.  

This week, you cast a bunch of new characters. Who are you most excited about?

I'm particularly fond of the Kai character, played by Chris Wood, and Jo, played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. I've been a fan of Jody Lyn since H20 back in the day. Chris Wood is this exciting new guy, not new to everyone, but new to me, and he bowled me over. The characters are so powerful, each of them, and I'm really excited to see what we can do with them.

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The Vampire Diaries - Season 6 Interview With Julie Plec

I have to ask: Is there a chance Damon and Bonnie will like where they are? Is it almost heaven-like?
Ooh, well… I can tell you this: Where they are is part of the mystery of the beginning of the season. It’s not torturous, but it’s by no means a roller coaster ride of fun. If nothing else, it’s a bit of an existential experience. [Laughs]

How aware of their new surroundings will they be?
They’ll be aware that they’re no longer where they thought they were — but they’re also not dead, per se. They’ll be asking a lot of questions, along with the audience, including: What’s going on? Where the hell are we? And how do we get home?

There’s a crazy internet rumor out there that suggests Elena will want to reunite with Damon so badly, she’ll consider dying to join him. Is there any truth to that?
I’ll just say that I think it’d be super sad for a young woman in her vibrant, early years to take her life and die on the sword for the love of a man. As much as I am a romantic and believe in true love, I also believe in therapy and trying to pull yourself together and getting on with your life.

Is she pulling herself together? What can you say about Elena’s mental state in Season 6?
She’s trying, and I won’t necessarily say she’s succeeding. She’s got some complicated coping mechanisms that are making her be things and do things and act in ways that we wouldn’t normally expect from her.

And how is Stefan coping with the apparent loss of his brother?
Stefan has made some very big choices about how he wants to live his life in the wake of his brother’s death. That’s part of the first round of reveals of where our characters are. Is he off on the top of a mountain talking to a shaman? Is he trying to get answers from a witch about how to fix everything? Is he back to being a ripper? Is he drowning his sorrows at the bottom of a bottle? We’ll see…

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The Vampire Diaries - Caroline Dries Teases Season 6

The anti-magic boundary spell is still intact so, ironically, the vampires of Mystic Falls have sort of become Travelers in the sense that they have no home to return to. That said, where will Season 6 find everyone — a united front trying to reclaim their territory or dispersed on personal journeys?

The anti-magic boundary will continue to play a role moving forward as we begin to explore this notion of what it means to go home again. As the story unfolds we’ll see the effects exile has had on everyone and see that everyone is handling it (and the loss of their loved ones) differently and personal journeys will form. Some will be fighting for a way to save their home, others have given up or moved on or found peace with it… We wanted the fallout to be personal for everyone.

Stefan lost his best friend and brother, and Elena and Jeremy each lost their significant others. How will they each specifically cope with their grief?

 I can’t go in too much detail without giving things away but the events of the finale were beyond devastating and ripple effects will be felt and change the dynamic of the show.

Alaric is back in action and so is Enzo. What can you say about their upcoming dynamic? Do you have any Alarenzo scenarios on your wish-list? (Example: Alaric is teaching history at Whitmore College when Enzo, ever the wise guy, pops up to correct him in the middle of his lecture.)

We are very excited about Alaric’s return and plan to incorporate him in Elena’s life hoping to give a type of parental touchstone to her (something she lost when she lost him). Enzo, as we left him, is still a bit of a loose canon wild thing and I can’t wait until the two butt
heads– and I’m sure they will. Let’s see, wish list — feels like there could be a bar brawl in their future. Or maybe they’ll just karaoke compete against each other.

The Other Side is gone. How does this affect the mythology of the show — does the Gilbert ring still work and do ghosts exist in this Other Side-less world?

Without the Other Side, Jeremy can no longer contact ghosts, which is how they know it’s gone-gone. This also means, as you guessed, the Gilbert Ring won’t work.

Caroline has always been this ray of sunshine on the show. However, her snapping Luke’s neck was drastic and unexpected. Was this a crime of passion — mostly to foreshadow Caroline and Stefan’s growing feelings for each other — or should fans expect to see a much darker version to Care Bear in Season 6?

Caroline, as we know, doesn’t like not being in control of things and with Stefan’s death and Bonnie’s prediction about her own fate, Caroline was feeling helpless and out of control. So that vicious move was pure emotional desperation. Her feelings for Stefan are (at the conscious level right now) friend feelings. I personally feel like she’s not quite sure what she’s feeling. It’s all types of confusing. Lots of grey area:
Stefan is her friend. Elena loved Stefan. Elena’s her best friend. Kind of a no-fly zone, which is why I think that if she has had any more-than-friend feelings she’s pushed them away or convinced herself otherwise. The feelings behind the feelings are something we get to explore in season 6 as we watch how her relationship with Stefan plays out in the wake of the finale. Any time we turn a character dark it’s fun because it’s a change of pace for the writers, actors and viewers. It’d be interesting to see a darker Caroline but we would only go down that road if it felt 100% earned.#

What can you tease about Bonnie and Damon and in what sort of capacity we’ll might be seeing them in?

All I can tease is that you will be seeing them.

Tyler and Matt Donovan came out of the finale pretty much victors.
Tyler is no longer a hybrid with vampire weaknesses and a sire bond complex. Matt can now live in a place where he isn’t a Happy Meal on legs. What does the future hold for the Lockwood Manor bros?

We get to start them in season 6 in a very fresh place that will hopefully feel new and cool. Tyler was in such a devastated place for most of season 5 so we wanted to shake that up a little bit. Likewise, Matt has been victimized so much in the show as a result of being human in a vampire-run world, so we’re excited to give him his version of a “human”
world, especially now that he’s grown up so much, developed opinions and beliefs and has really come into his own.

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The Originals - Nathan Parsons Interview

Even in its first season, The Originals is pretty complicated. How familiar were you with it when you joined?

I was familiar with the general mythology from The Vampire Diaries, because I’d met Julie Plec and a few of the executive producers when I read for a few parts. Actually, I read for one of the vampires back whenThe Originals was casting as a pilot. I kept myself up to date on the mythology, so when they called again for the part of Jackson, it wasn’t tough to catch up.

You were almost a vampire? Do you remember which one you read for?

I don’t, unfortunately. They actually don’t tell you the names when you go in. It’s all very secretive.

Let’s talk Hayley and Jackson. What’s really going on there?

Their relationship is complicated. Jackson has watched Hayley as a wolf for years, so he’s had a lot of time to get to know her. When the curse was broken and he finally got to talk to her in person, he’d built up an entire relationship in his head. So for him to just say, “Hey, I’m that wolf that’s been watching you and we’re supposed to be married,” that was a lot to throw at her at once. I think she was a little taken aback. Also, the reality is starting to set in for Jackson: Hayley is pregnant with Klaus’ child. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it.

Jackson seems to care about Hayley, but he also needs her for political reasons. How will he balance his emotions with his politics?

There’s a way, I think, to achieve both. You want the pack to be strong and you want Hayley to be the queen, but she also has a relationship with the vampires. I think Jackson will use that relationship to get back into the good graces of the original vampires. It’s a tough line to walk; you want the personal relationship, but you also need the political relationship.

Should we expect tension between Jackson and Elijah, Hayley’s two men?

I think so. Generally, vampires don’t like werewolves, and werewolves hate vampires. Every time I see one, I want to kill them. But Elijah’s relationship with Hayley does make things complicated. Plus, the originals are the ones in power. I don’t think the original vampires are as bad as Marcel was — Elijah seems like a much smarter leader — so maybe this is a relationship we can deal with, once we’ve gotten over that gut instinct.

We’ll also be meeting some of Klaus’ werewolf relatives soon. Will they get along with Jackson’s pack?

Well, we’re all wolves at the end of the day. I’m not sure how their interaction is going to go down, though. We’re starting to learn more about this Crescent pack, but we haven’t really examined the greater werewolf culture yet. We haven’t seen how they interact with the other packs, and I’m curious to see how that develops.

Did you ever think you’d be discussing “the greater werewolf culture” in your career?

[Laughs] You know, I can’t say that ever came up in acting class.

Generally speaking, where is the season headed as we approach the finale next month?

Well, we’ve met the original vampires, now we’re going to start to learn about the original werewolves and we also have some really old original witches on the show now. Basically, everyone is going to butt heads. They all want peace, but they all want it on their own terms. We’re starting to see all of it spiral out of control, as much as Klaus and Elijah are trying to keep it together. Their world is being ripped apart. I can’t wait for the season finale because, the way things are boiling up now, I know it’s going to be explosive.

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The Originals - Julie Plec & Michael Narducci Interview

Marcel has a lot to deal with where Klaus is concerned.

JULIE: The first level of suspicion has been raised. And he clearly knows that this person who’s been buddying up to him all along isn’t necessarily on the up. So it’s just the beginning of this next stretch of Marcel trying to figure out what Klaus’s game is and where he fits into all of it and so we shall see what he chooses to do about that.

But there’s something else Marcel might have to tackle first.

JULIE: First and foremost what’s important to him is the fact that he’s very clearly got a Judas in his midst. So he’s got to deal with that. But, overall, his vampire community has the hold on the quarter that they have because they can completely control the witches and so as long as Davina is still in that attic, and is able to sense who’s doing magic and what ’til that Harvest window passes, he’s not gonna let the cat out of the bag.

Cami has compulsion issues that make her not too happy with Klaus. 

JULIE: She’s pissed and interestingly enough, and though she’s compelled by Klaus to forget these things as he separates from her, she consciously won’t remember any of this until she’s back in Klaus’s presence. But she’s not going to let him off the hook from it. And she’s going to continue to do anything and everything she can to break free of this sort of bond that he’s created between the two of them that is controlling her. And she’s not a weak little lilting flower. So she’s probably gonna have a little success at it.

MICHAEL: Yeah, she very smartly…when she is with him with all her psychological training and background she is able to very astutely categorize what his problems are and call him on some of his stuff in a way that no one really has and I think that’s what makes her such a great foil to him and a character in her own right. And his reaction to that will be very interesting. You know, someone else calls Klaus out he might just snap the neck and be done with it but he feels something, some kinship towards her that keeps him from doing that.

Rebekah has some decisions to make. Will she be able to get what she wants?

JULIE:  Well, Rebekah’s predicament is that she honestly believes that everything she wants is outside of the family and, you know, in terms of peace, harmony, happiness, sanctity. As much as she loves Elijah and as much as she loves and hates and loathes and despises but still loves Klaus, she really believes that ‘if I could just break free of this I can have all I’ve ever wanted which is a life that I am in complete control of.’ And what she’s gonna have to come to terms with is the fact that you can’t escape this group. No matter what you do the pull of family — it’s always going to be stronger than your own…I mean, she’s on her way out of town. Hayley’s missing. We’ll see what choice she makes. I mean, this is her opportunity for freedom. She could hit the road and be gone. Here it is, a family member in jeopardy. So what is she going to do? Is she gonna turn around and come home or not? And given what we know about Rebekah, I would safely guess this is not the last we see of her. But I think that what she’s going to have to work through in her own life — it is to reconcile this belief that the power of this family is consuming her in a bad way and figure out how she can fit within this family dynamic in a way that makes her happy…or if she can.

After what we saw in “Fruit of the Poisoned Tree,” there are sparks between Hayley and Elijah that can’t be denied. But will those sparks lead to anything?

JULIE: Well, there’s definitely something. I think that Elijah, as we know, is a good protector and tends to be drawn to people just in spite of himself. And I think that when you have a situation like that where he clearly, I think, he believes he cares deeply about that child that she’s carrying and maybe is starting to have his own level of concern that it’s more than just the child that he is protecting and caring for. It’s definitely not a good thing. It’s fun to watch…

MICHAEL: In Vampire Diaries episode 4×20 when Elijah realized that this woman was carrying his brother’s child he thought, ‘Wow, this could change everything.’ A baby being born into Klaus, this monster’s life might introduce some feelings of humanity. It might make his heart break. He might start to care. He might feel things, emotions he has never felt, especially as an abused child. He will be able to be a father to someone else and be able to right some of the wrongs that he’s never been able to right. ‘All I need to do is protect this woman and her baby. That’s great.’ And then, ‘Wow, crap.”

JULIE: ‘She slapped me!’

MICHAEL: ‘Yeah and I felt something about it. Now my drive of protecting this woman and having this child be a part of redeeming my brother — that drive comes into conflict with these emotions. And I don’t even know where they’re coming from or how to feel about them or what to do.’ And so that’s going to be a little of Elijah’s journey. For Hayley, Hayley was given up for adoption. She spent some time in a foster home. She was raised by this woman who then — her foster parents abandoned her when they realized she was a werewolf. And so she’s gone through her life not really trusting anybody and having to survive on her own. And clearly we saw in Vampire Diaries, is someone who’s capable of breaking promises and being a little bit treacherous. And then she meets this guy, Elijah, who lives and centers his whole life on, ‘My word is my bond.’ And she’s like, ‘Does this even exist? Is this real?’ And what a great fantasy Elijah is to someone like Hayley. So how could she not be drawn to this protector who’s noble and a good man — someone she’s never seen before. And so it’s a real great chemistry.

The witches are going to need to regroup.

JULIE: They have sort of hit rock bottom in that everything that Sophie was trying to do and everything that witches need to hold on to their power kind of got killed in the form of the only living witch able to do that spell. I think that they are gonna nurse their wounds for a little bit and then gear up and Sophie is gonna have a little bit of a spirit crisis that she’s gonna have to snap herself out of and decide like, ‘Okay, this can’t be the end of this journey. I worked way too hard for this. So what am I gonna do now?’ And we’ll hit that in a couple episodes.

Davina will have her own journey.

JULIE: Davina — the journey that she’s going on now that we sort of learned her origin story, at least her origin story with Marcel — is just beginning. She is about to embark on the next sort of round of episodes on…on a journey that is basically going to sort of put her both at odds with everyone but also create some surprising new friendships and new alliances that maybe we didn’t see coming.

There will be a tug of war for Davina’s loyalties. Her friendship with Marcel is on shaky ground.

MICHAEL: Davina may or may not know that that last elder was killed. And who is going to tell her and what in order to control her situation? If you’re Marcel and part of the reason you’re able to control the town is because you have beautiful, sweet Davina up in that attic telling you when people are practicing magic, and helping you when you need it with your own boost of magic, do you want to be like, ‘You know what? You’re fine. You’re free to go. Hey, this was great. Take care. And I’ll see you around some time.’ Or do you say whatever you need to say in order to make sure that that asset remains under your power? And if he were to not be so truthful to her, how might that affect their friendship?

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The Originals - Julie Plec & Michael Narducci Speak About The Crossover

We've just returned from a screening of this Tuesday night's episode of The Originals, which is titled "Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree." After the screening, Originals Executive Producers Julie Plec and Michael Narducci spoke with a room full of TV journalists about what is coming up on the show, and one of those topics happened to be the upcoming crossover with The Vampire Diaries, as Michael Trevino's Tyler Lockwood werewolf will be making his way into the spin-off series.

"I can say that the crossover's happening very soon, that it will answer a couple questions, one of which is at least answering the first piece of the mystery of the protective wolf," Julie Plec teased when first approached to talk about the crossover.

"It will also introduce a lot more questions," Michael Narducci added. "A lot of things will come out of that crossover that are going to shake things up within the core dynamic of the Original family, and there will be a whole storyline that will come out of where that crossover leads them, geographically, and what they discover when they're there, so there's a lot of stuff that's about to be introduced," he said. As to the geographic "where" of things will go, Plec revealed that it is the bayou, not Mystic Falls , that Hayley and Tyler find themselves.

"One of the big things that Hayley has been asking herself quietly, and the whole thing that brought her to New Orleans in the first place, was to try to get answers about what bloodline she came from; the mystery of what this mark on her shoulder means; that Klaus, in Vampire Diaries , led her to New Orleans. That's kind of what kickstarted this whole experience," Julie said. "The one thing that Tyler does offer in his presence, as he sets foot into this world, is answers, and more information, and so he takes her to a place out in the bayou, where she's going to start to understand a bit of where she comes from."

If you're wondering when the Originals-Vampire Diaries character crossover may air, it appear that it will likely air during November sweeps. "It's funny; we don't plot things for sweeps, because we like to believe that every episode needs to be its own sort of 'power movie.' That being said, it does, in our schedule, fall into November. I'm fairly certain we'll catch our first glimpse of Tyler before November's over," Julie confirmed.

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