The Originals - Season 1 Paleyfest Promo

The Vampire Diaries - Season 5 Paleyfest Promo

The Originals - News From Paleyfest 2014

IS ELIJAH THE NEW KLAUS? 

“The redemption of Klaus and the undoing of Elijah seems to be where we’re creeping towards,” Daniel Gillies explained. And don’t expect Klaus to object to his brother’s change of heart. “He likes to see Elijah embrace the darker side,” Joseph Morgan added. “There’s an excitement, definitely.”

CLAIRE HOLT’S EXIT EXPLAINED 

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a temporary hiatus,” Holt said about her absence from the series. “I’m taking a little vacation in the sun, but I’m going to return to my New Orleans family.” Holt went on to assure the audience that Originals producers didn’t “run out of ideas,” nor was she “pushed out” of the show. After not seeing so many of her loved ones for so long, she decided she simply needed more free time. ”I am so not ready to let go of the Mikaelsons,” she concluded. “I hope that there’s many more stories to tell.”

NO TIME FOR PEACE 

Elijah may have seemingly united New Orleans’ supernatural factions last week, but make no mistake, no one is expecting it to last. “He’s starting to understand there’s a lot of method to Klaus’ madness and a degree of mayhem he can’t avoid,” Gillies explained. “I think he’s expecting poor results, but he’s giving the factions this one final opportunity to do the right thing — which is his thing.”

HAYLEY’S NEXT MOVE 

What’s coming up for Klaus’ baby mama now that she’s getting a seat at the table? ”Throughout Hayley’s life, she’s been looking for a family,” Phoebe Tonkin explained. “Now she’s just trying to work out where her loyalties lie and what she wants to fight for. She’s a woman on a mission to protect her baby and protect what she thinks is right.”

ANOTHER CROSSOVER 

When an audience member asked about more crossover episodes with The Vampire Diaries, executive producer Julie Plec had only this to say: “Yes… Maybe… I don’t know.”

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The Vampire Diaries - News From Paleyfest 2014

DELENA’S FUTURE 

“They’ve got to have a lot of actual, legit, grown-up conversations,” executive producer Julie Plec noted of Damon and Elena’s current relationship status. “We just want to try to play them as human as possible, in spite of their inhuman experience.” Of course, there’s one major problem with that plan. “They keep taking their pants off, and that’s what gets in the way of the grown-up conversations,” Ian Somerhalder noted.

WHERE IS KATHERINE? 

“We don’t really discuss heaven and hell on the show,” executive producer Caroline Dries explained of Katherine’s epic death. “I thought it was pretty obvious — her being dragged away in a church — where she went.” So does that mean we should never expect to see Kat again in some form? ”Never say never on our show,” Dries said.

KLAROLINE’S CHANCES 

Basically, don’t hold your breath for another Klaus-Caroline reunion. “If they were still on the same show, they might have a brief moment of something,” Plec said of the former pair. “I feel like Caroline Forbes is such a crucial element … on The Vampire Diaries. I think taking her off that show would be very damaging to the show. Right now, Klaus has his own s–t to do.”

CAROLINE AND STEFAN? 

“Caroline and Stefan have a lot to do together in the next couple episodes,” Plec teased when a fan asked about a potential romance for the pair. “They go through some stuff together.” And for the record, Paul Wesley is all for it. “I’d like that!” he said enthusiastically.

‘HOPE FOR STELENA’ 

When an eager fan asked if there’s still “hope for Stelena,” Dries made her day with this answer: “There’s some really good Stelena stuff coming up in the episode Paul directed.” She called it “satisfying” and “nostalgic,” while Wesley added that it’s “reminiscent of season one.”

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Ian Somerhalder 'bombed' his first TVD audition

Can you imagine anyone else other than Ian Somerhalder playing Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries? No? Neither can I! But Mr Smolderhalder nearly lost the part after blowing his first audition.

The actor, 33, said during the CW show's panel at Paleyfest in Beverly Hills Saturday, "The process of booking a television show is an extensively nerve-racking, nail-biting, awful experience. You can believe in yourself so much but when you realize you want something in life, the stakes are raised."

"I knew this was my role. I wanted this role -- I knew I could do it," he said. "You go through a series of testing, you meet the directors and producers and writers, and then go through a testing phase, and then you get an offer. Then you go and test for the studio -- in this case Warner Brothers -- and then you test for the network."

Unfortunately, Somerhalder failed impressed the network. "Whether it was too much coffee, that B12 shot I gave myself, who knows?" he said. "I bombed it."

Screenwriter Kevin Williamson, took Somerhalder aside and said, "'That wasn't good, was it?'" Somerhalder recalled. "I said, 'No.' And he said, 'Just go back and do what you know you need to do.' And I did. I did what I thought I needed to do, and I left feeling awful. Guess what? It wasn't good enough."

"I had to go back and re-test because all our big boss, (CBS president) Les Moonves, did not buy it, the fact that I was Damon. And I wanted to jump off of a building," Ian said. After seeing another actor waiting to read for the part, he thought to himself: "You know what? Screw this. This is mine. This is not his."

"I went in and did it and oddly enough, ended up getting the call," said Somerhalder "But it was after 10 days of virtual hell. And you don't always win. But every time you lose, you get better."

Julie Plec Spills More Clues On Season 3 at PaleyFest

Can we expect reconciliation between Elena and Stefan soon?We can expect movement, we can expect breakthroughs, we can expect honest conversations and we can expect some frustration as they continue to try to rediscover if those feelings that were so strong in the beginning still exist. Did they go away and has Stefan ruined it forever? Or does Elena still have a willingness and an ability to love him? In the midst of all that, we'll confront the question of what exactly has evolved and transpired in the Damon and Elena friendship that's gotten so far this year. The rest of the season is going to be circling around those questions.

Damon made it very clear that he is much better at being the bad guy than Stefan is. Will he now give up on Elena? Will he turn bad again?The beauty of Damon is he never really gives up. He acts out, he takes a stand, he has opinions, but when all is said and done, if brother's in a crisis, if girl's in a crisis, if the world is in a crisis, Damon inevitably can't help himself and he's got to find his way back in. This week's episode really shows that perfect balance of Damon being nasty and sarcastic and angry, and yet really illuminating at his core that he is a very heroic person. It's the constant Damon evolution.

Alaric (Matt Davis) was shot by Meredith (Torrey DeVitto) in the previous episode. What can you tease about his future?Alaric, with his tragic and unfortunate luck with the ladies, has just found himself nearly murdered by a human. Had she aimed the gun one inch to the right, he probably would be dead right now. A little spoiler alert, but of the duh variety: We will actually see Alaric again and he'll find himself in this week's episode caught right smack in the center of this murder investigation. We'll start to get a lot of answers about what's going on, and who's behind what and who is going to take the fall for the serial killings that are going down in the town.

Now that it's been revealed there's another white oak tree, how will that change the direction of the rest of the season?The discovery that there was another tree planted in absence of the original one that was burnt down, that definitely sets Rebekah (Claire Holt) and Klaus (Joseph Morgan) on edge a little. They just temporarily defeated their mother, who was trying to annihilate them, so they couldn't even enjoy that victory for a short minute before they learned that there's another weapon out there. That being said, right now they're the only ones who know that that weapon is out there. We'll see how long Rebekkah is able to hold onto that secret. The answer is probably not very long. We'll see what Damon does to get a hold of that information and to figure out what she's snooping around about and why.

Abby's transition obviously won't go as smoothly as Caroline's did. How will Caroline (Candice Accola) help Bonnie's mother through this?The beauty of Caroline is that a control freak in her human life became a very, very, very well controlled vampire when all those things got magnified. Nobody else is blessed with that kind of obsessive, compulsive, dedication to perfection as Caroline. With Abby (Persia White), what we'll see is that a witch is connected to the Earth, and when you turn a witch into a vampire, she's no longer a witch, so it's losing a part of yourself. It's not just losing your humanity, it's losing what really connected your soul to God, if you want to get religious about it. It's not going to be easy for her or Bonnie (Katerina Graham), because there's no spell she can whip up to help. It's, "How do I help my mother here, who I don't know very well, who left me? We just barely got our relationship going, now how do I help her find her true self in all this tragedy?"

Elena's friends have made it clear that other people end up suffering so that she can be saved. Will that weigh on her heavily when the show returns?Yeah, the biggest burden that Elena has to bear, frankly, is that she herself is an incredibly selfless person. She very much wants to take care of and protect the people that she loves, and yet, because ultimately she loves so deeply and so thoroughly, she has created a circle of friends who love that deeply right in return and are, in their own way, selfless and willing to sacrifice themselves for her. It's a little battle of, "Hey, wait a second! I was willing to jump off a cliff." "No, I was!" It all comes down to one of the big central themes in this show, which is loyalty and love and the friendship and bonds of family, and what you're willing to do for the people that are important to you. In a situation like this, with these kids in Mystic Falls where the stakes are high every day, there's a lot of ways that can go. Lately, it seems like it's been going in the disfavor of Elena's friends and she's going to have to deal with that.

Last year's finale had a huge element of danger. Is this one emotionally grounded or will there be more danger?It hasn't been put on the page yet, but the finale this year is like a combo platter of the finales from Season 1 and Season 2 in that the mythology and the villain are going to continue to drive us to the end of the season, but emotionally, there's a lot going on in the characters' journeys. Just breaking this story I probably cried four or five times, got a few chills, got very excited, got nervous about how we're going to do it. There's a lot of story to tell and not a lot of time to tell it in. But fingers crossed on what I think is going to be really good.

PaleyFest Interviews

Here are a few of the interviews that took place before the panel...

PaleyFest Footage

Here is the whole footage for the PaleyFest TVD Panel

PaleyFest Highlights

Some Season 3 hints given during the panel...

Damon and Rebekah revisited: In the March 29 episode titled “The Murder of One,” “Damon does something really crappy to Rebekah and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Plec teased to the eager crowd. (An image popped up recently where Rebekah is seen torturing a bloodied, tied up and shirtless Damon.)  Ian warns that while Damon was clearly a bad boy in season 1 in particular, the “Originals have an appetite for destruction” and apparently they’re out to make trouble. “Hell hath no fury,” Julie warned about Rebekah.

Esther’s plan to kill her children resurfaces: Thought Esther was gone for good? Not so fast, says Plec. “Esther’s plan to take out her children will be revisited,” she revealed.  Despite Esther’s spell being disrupted in episode 15 (the last episode before the break), that was not the last we’ve seen of the Original family or Esther’s plan to try and destroy her children. There’s still “a whole other chapter to that story”.

Katherine is staying away – for now: When asked whether Katherine will make an appearance before season’s end, Plec – sort of – squashed discussions for the time being. According to her, if Klaus is still in Mystic Falls, Katherine will be far, far away.   If she returns to Mystic Falls, she’ll be putting her life in danger. No matter what Katherine feels for Damon and Stefan, her instinct for self-preservation is far more important.

Girl power: Kat Graham teased that in coming episodes, viewers will see more scenes between Bonnie and Caroline. “You’ll see a lot more of Bonnie and Caroline working together a lot,” she shared.

Mystic Falls death on the horizon?: Since season 1, viewers have endured the deaths of Vicki and aunt Jenna, but could there be another pivotal offing in the near future? “I don’t know,” Plec responded when asked whether everyone this season survives.

Elena before the Salvatores came into focus: At the moment, producers are eyeing actors to play Elena’s adoptive parents (and Jeremy’s biological ones), revisiting the moment of the fatal car accident that killed them and introduced Stefan into the fold.  Julie said that “we’re talking about having a flashback as we get to the end of the season that shows us Elena’s life before she had vampires in it. That would involve her parents, obviously. But it’s not written yet, so we’ll see where that leads.

Bonnie getting some love: Graham was coy, but hinted that Bonnie will meet someone who doesn’t die.

Elena as a vampire?: An avid reader of the L.J. Smith novels prefaced her question by saying that Elena in the books was turned into a vampire. Three seasons into the television show, there are no signs that the producers are going in that direction. Will they at some point? “We’ll see,” Plec replied.

Stefan’s Journey: Julie said that Stefan is still on a journey throughout this season. Basically, Damon and Stefan each began the show as a villain and a hero, but in their core they are both light and dark. Essentially, their journey is a battle for them both. Damon tries to resist his urges to be good and pure, while Stefan tries to resist his more evil tendencies. Ian Somerhalder said that “Damon and Stefan have equal capabilities of good and evil”. Julie doesn’t believe that Stefan can go back to the man he was at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries. But “he’s still Stefan...he’s still pure, strong, loyal, full of love, and full of light”. But he will still have to find a balance within himself and find a way to function as both a vampire and a good man. “Damon is no more good than Stefan is evil” and apparently the brother’s relationship is the true love story. Paul Wesley said that, as an actor, he does enjoy playing the darker side of Stefan, but he also enjoys Stefan’s inner turmoil and his journey.

Damon-Elena-Stefan Love Triangle: Will the triangle come to a head by the end of the season? “It’s going to come to a head - maybe not THE head - but a head for sure,” Julie shared. She reminisced about the beautiful love story that Elena and Stefan had at the beginning of the series. But Stefan’s absence and his subsequent bad behavior caused Damon and Elena to grow closer to each other. Basically, for Elena, the whole love triangle debate is all part of growing up. Julie said that before the end of the season “Elena will ask herself ‘who do I care for?’.” Nina Dobrev joked that maybe Elena needs to travel to Europe and meet some new boys who won’t try to kill her.

Quotes From The Panel...

"Do you think Klaus has a Match.com profile?" — Paul to Candice Accola following her description of Caroline and Kalus's relationship

"I love that their relationship is based on manipulation on both of their parts." — Candice, on Klaus and Caroline.

"Two words: casting couch." — Ian, joking how Paul's real life wife, Torrey DeVitto, landed her role

"Damon's no more good than Stefan is evil." — Executive Producer Julie Plec, on Damon and Stefan

"You have to piss people off to make it good." — Ian, on trying to please fans and keep the show exciting

"The goal is to make them both loveable, and hateable, and killable!" — Nina, on playing Katherine and Elena

"Never underestimate the power of the iPhone." — Ian taking photos of fans in the audience

"That's her rock. I don't think she believes Elena did anything to sabotage her mother." — Kat Graham, on Bonnie's relationship with Elena

"It's like every woman in my life." — Ian, on Damon being tortured by Rebekah

"I think I'm going for a Guiness World record." — Matt Davis, on the number of times Alaric has been killed

"It has been a heck of a season, and there's so much more to come..." - Candice on her favorite moments

"I think she needs to go to Europe, and meet some new boys..." - Nina Dobrev speaking about her character

"They have equal capabilities of good and evil." - Ian Somerhalder

For lots of photos from the event, visit our Facebook page gallery

TVD Cast at Paley Fest This Weekend

Paley Fest happens this weekend at the Saban Theare in Beverly Hills.
The line up for the Vampire Diaries Panel is Julie Plec, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, Matt Davis and Candice Accola.
Hulu will be streaming the panel live along with this livestream.
The panel is live on Saturday at 7pm at the location. This is 10pm Eastern Time, 3am Sunday UK Time.

UPDATE

Yesterday Debra Birnbaum, the editor-in-chief of TV Guide magazine tweeted that Kat Graham will be joining the Line up!

"Just found out @katgraham is joining the #vampirediaries panel @paleycenter! If I had any witchy powers, I would have known already."