Joseph Morgan Teases Season 4

Joseph Morgan speaks with Eonline at the TV Festival in Monte Carlo


   

Michael Trevino - It’d Be Really Tough To Get Rid Of Joseph Morgan On Our Show

Speaking from the 52nd TV Festival in Monte Carlo, which both Joseph Morgan and Michael Trevino attended, Michael tells us how it would be hard to rid The Vampire Diaries of Joseph Morgan aka Klaus.

“The Vampire Diaries” seemingly ushered out one of its most beloved cast members – Joseph Morgan – when Klaus’ body was staked and possibly destroyed in The CW show’s Season 3 finale, but Michael Trevino doesn’t think his cast mate is gone for good.

“I’d have to say, it’d be really tough to get rid of Joseph Morgan on our show, I would imagine that he’d be back in some capacity real soon,” Michael, who plays werewolf-vampire hybrid Tyler Lockwood on the drama told Access Hollywood at the Monte Carlo Television Festival on Thursday.

As fans know, Klaus actually took over Tyler’s body, so the question that remains is where is the real Tyler?

“We don’t know,” Michael told Access. “I mean, at this point, honestly, because Klaus is in Tyler’s body, we don’t know what’s gonna happen when Klaus gets back into his body. We don’t know where Tyler’s gonna be or what his fate is gonna be at that point.”

If Klaus’ body still exists, that is.

In the meantime, while Klaus is using Tyler’s face, it sounds like he’ll be taking another shot at the woman he continues to lust after – Caroline.

“One would assume that if you’re Klaus and you’re in Tyler’s body, you’re going to take advantage of that, and maybe make a play again at Caroline because you’ve been trying so hard to steal her from Tyler,” Michael said. “I would imagine in the first episode something like that’s gonna happen.”

Playing a new role on the show has come with its challenges for Michael, but he’s enjoyed trying to embody Klaus/Tyler.

“I told myself not to imitate how Joseph Morgan plays Klaus. I think it was more of a just ‘keep it real subtle’ and what I can tell from Joseph, as anyone who watches the show sees, he’s really focused in and very direct with whoever he’s doing the scene with,” Michael explained. “So I took that note and kind of just ran with it and sprinkled my own little Klaus mannerisms in there… Just a little flavor. He’s a Brit. I want to throw my little swagger in there.”

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Season 4 Teases From Ausiello

12th June 2012

Any Vampire Diaries scoop on Bonnie?

 Her decision in the finale to help Klaus take possession of Tyler’s body (all for the greater good and unbeknownst to everyone) sets up a very interesting Season 4 for Elena’s BFF. “This is Bonnie’s ‘I am witch woman, hear me roar’ moment,” declares Vampire Diaries EP Julie Plec. “She went and made a decision that she felt was best for the people that she loved, consequences be damned. Bonnie is the true hero in all of this, if you really look at it. She came in and found a way to save the day. Had she not done what she did, all of our heroes would be dead… We’re just seeing the beginning of growth for her, exploring who she is and what it means to be a witch and how she feels about it.”

I need some Vampire Diaries scoop on Delena.

Although not specifically about the star-crossed duo, Plec reveals that Year 4 will be the Season of Transition. “Every character is growing up and graduating, so to speak,” she says, “and setting up the future of their grown-up worlds outside of Mystic Falls… Or maybe not.”


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Insurgence 4 Update - 8th June 2012

With only 2 weeks to go until our personal event of the year, we thought it was time for an update. There have been several changes since last time.
 Unfortunately, due to work commitments, Daniel Gillies (Elijah) and Torrey DeVitto (Meredith) have had to cancel. Luckily for us, last night Rogue announced a replacement guest in the form of of Claire Holt (Rebekah) and hopefully will surprise us with another.

The full guest line up is as follows:

Ian Somerhalder (Damon)
Paul Wesley (Stefan)
Nathaniel Buzolic (Kol)
Malese Jow (Anna)
Steven R McQueen (Jeremy)
Claire Holt (Rebekah)

The event runs from 22-24 June 2012 in Birmingham, UK
We will be tweeting live from the event: Please follow @TVDaddictions & @MeganHandley on twitter to catch updates.

Julie Plec Explains Season 4

Here’s what the Mystic Falls mastermind revealed about new journeys for both Elena and beloved bitch Rebekah, how Klaus has managed to survive time and time again, impending graduation and more.

On Vampire Elena’s Season 4 Journey:

 “How do you go to high school as a new vampire? How do you fall in or out of love? How does it change who you are and what you feel? … We get really excited when we talk about this [arc] because it feels so deliciously Season 1 all over again,” Plec enthused. “It takes us right back to Stefan arriving in Mystic Falls, trying to hold himself together and not let anybody know who he was. Now, we get to watch our heroine go through all of that.”

On Why Big Bad Klaus Is Still Around:

“I will tell you this — and I haven’t said this before: Our intentionwas to kill Klaus at the end of Season 3,” confided Plec. “We created the character last year… and our intention was, that after a long, arduous year of trying to vanquish and defeat the villain, our heroes would prevail and he would be no more. But when you have actors [like Joseph Morgan] who are that good, making such a distinct mark in the roles that they are playing, you have to let your storytelling evolve and wrap around that a little bit. We collectively decided around the middle of Season 3 that we weren’t done with Klaus — or Joseph. We also weren’t done with the Original family, because with the addition of Rebekah and Kol, there’s still a lot of story to tell. Sometimes [as a writer] you kill a character because you don’t know what else you can do with them, and sometimes you kill them because their death will so powerfully impact your other characters. But if you’re killing a character who is doing a great job with tons and tons of story left in him, you’re making a mistake. We had to do a bit of an about-face in our storytelling, which is how we came up with the Tyler body swap [in the finale]. So, we got to kill Klaus, and then not!”

On Rebekah’s Role as the ‘Mean Girl’ Queen Bee: 

“What I’m excited about with Rebekah [in Season 4], specifically, is that we have never had a true antagonist on a human/teenage level,” she noted. “We’ve never had our Valerie [from Beverly Hills, 90210] or our Amanda Woodward [from Melrose Place]. And with Rebekah, who is so vulnerable and damaged but has that tough exterior, we get to see a queen bee in action; we get to see a mean girl. As we get into the second half of their senior year, here’s Rebekah, still in Mystic Falls, heading back to school, completely ostracized from the community of people that she knows because of what she did to Elena and Matt [in the finale]. She’s completely loathed by the one guy [Matt] that she had a crush on, and also by her past love [Stefan]. What’s she going to do about that? How does a vampire, who has all kinds of mind control capabilities and sass, carve her way into the high school world when the people that we love hate her guts? Once she gets over the hump of being “World’s Most Hated” in the yearbook, how will she live? And what will her life be like?”

On Who Will Be in the Forefront Next Season:

“Obviously, Elena and her journey are going to be front and center, but one of the things that we’ve finally been able to do over the past year is dig much deeper into the other characters — their lives, their wants, their loves. We’ve given Matt Donovan his due, and given Bonnie her time in the sun, and Caroline especially has evolved into a leading lady in her own right. So, this is going to be the year that ‘Donna Martin graduates,’” announced Plec with a laugh. “This is our friends finishing out their high school lives and their lives in Mystic Falls, and each of them is going to have a transitional journey about where they go and what they’re meant to be. It’s going to be a really exciting year because it’s one of endings as much as it’s about new beginnings.

On Mystic Falls High’s Class of 2013:

“Our goal is that this will be the year that gets them out of high school,” she said, “and tees us up for what will become of them in Season 5."

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TVD Gossip from EOnline

Any TVD Scoopage?


Similar to Alaric, one of our heroes might become a full-fledged baddie next season: Bonnie! Alas, like all things TVD-related, it's a bit complicated. Of the repercussions to Bonnie's controversial actions in the finale, Julie Plec tells us, "To be truthful, a lot of debates go on in our [writers'] room about whether to take Bonnie to to the dark side and the biggest thing that prevents us from doing that is not wanting to feel like we're foliowing Willow's journey." Of course, she is referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's HWIC, Willow. So will that iconic character stop the Diaries' writers from making Bonnie bad? "She's tapped into some darker stuff…I don't know which way we'll go with her in season four. Do you go down a road even though people did it really well, do you really want to do that? Or do you ignore what other people did and do it because it's right for the character? I'm interested to see where we land on that as writers." As are we, Julie. As are we!


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7 Teases From Julie Plec For Season 4

When The Vampire Diaries returns for Season 4, the friendship between Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Caroline (Candice Accola) that fans have been clamoring for will finally be further explored.

"I always look at Caroline as Stefan's future best friend Lexi [Arielle Kebbel]," executive producer Julie Plec said during this weekend's ATX Television Festival panel, moderated by this reporter. "You've seen little pockets of a friendship spark between them, and I see Caroline in the long run of the series becoming that important in Stefan's life."

Keep reading for more seven other teases from Plec...

1. Stefan will lean on Caroline during Elena's transition: "Caroline is an acolyte of the Stefan school of sobriety so to speak, so she's going to be all, 'I'm with you buddy, I'm on your team' as they try to help Elena [Nina Dobrev]," Plec said. "I remember saying in Episode 203 when Stefan takes Caroline under his wing that the two of them and their chemistry was so delightful... It's such a pleasure to watch.

2. A possible rekindling for Caroline and Matt: While Caroline is very much in love with Tyler (Michael Trevino) at this moment, after re-watching the beginnings of Caroline and Matt's relationship in Season 1, Plec said, "I think Caroline and Matt [Zach Roerig], in the long run of the series, will have another moment."

3. Bonnie's dad will finally be introduced: "It's time!" Plec said when we asked about Daddy Bennett's arrival. "This year is a big year of transitions. It's the end of senior year, and there's a rich home life for everybody we're going to explore."

4. Will Joseph Morgan be back as Klaus in the season premiere? We asked Plec if this tweet to Morgan meant she could confirm he'd be in the premiere. Unfortunately, the mention was a little premature. "I actually can't say," she said. "We haven't broken [down] the script yet, so it remains to be seen how long we'll play Tyler as Klaus."

5. Alaric (Matt Davis) could definitely return: "As long as Jeremy can see ghosts and Alaric is out there in the universe, then there's a window there," Plec said. "The moment in the end of the finale when he shows up broke every rule in the book, but I didn't care. For us it was more important for us to give Matt Davis and Alaric that last goodbye to say, 'Yes, he was the bad guy for the last few episodes, but here he is in that Obi-Wan kind of way.'"

6. Damon's evolution will continue: After re-watching a scene from the Season 1 episode "162 Candles," which screened at the festival, Plec noted that Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has evolved in the two seasons since. "This is a reminder that Damon is a character that started in a very dark place, but with a lot of love and emotion brewing under him," Plec said. "All of our characters, including his own brother, had to witness his evolution as a person and he has done some really extraordinarily sh---y things, but he has also done them in the name of love, pain, abandonment, self-preservation, survival and family. He's going to keep evolving and Elena's feelings for him are going to continue to evolve."

7. Season 4 will make viewers scream: Writer Jose Molina, who was also on the panel, perhaps gave the most agonizing tease. "We have the road map for next season and before we broke for vacation, I was staring and looking at everything we have planned and this stupid grin spread over my face," he said. "I was like, 'They are going to s---.' Already we have so many moments where people are going to freak."

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Vote For TVD At The Teen Choice Awards

The TVD cast have SIX nominations at this years Teen Choice Awards in fours categories.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi             - The Vampire Diaries

Actress Fantsy/Sci-Fi  - Nina Dobrev

                                   - Kat Graham

Actor Fantasy/Sci-Fi   - Ian Somerhalder

                                   - Paul Wesley

Male Hottie                 - Ian Somerhalder

To vote for TVD in the awards check out the Teen Choice Awards website

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE EVERY DAY!!!

Can Elena Be Turned Human Again?

While Julie Plec and the rest of the writing staff will be hard at work on the fourth season of theVampire Diaries very soon, her cast certainly has their ideas of where it might go, especially as Elena makes her journey into vampire-dom. Among the most titillating? Paul Wesley’s idea, which he pitched to me this week at the CW upfronts. “I think a lot of this season is going to be about how to fix the issue or deal with it somehow - maybe even reverse it.”

Now, whether or not that’s even possible, time will tell. But one thing he’s sure of? The writers have a big task in front of them. “I am excited but also a little concerned. One of the things that was so important about the show was that there was this innocent girl being infiltrated by these dark characters - these threatening, vicious beings - who were going to suck her blood at any moment and kill her. Now, that’s not a threat any more. We have some very talented writers and I’m sure they’re going to figure it out,” Wesley says.

Meanwhile, Ian Somerhalder thinks the gang will come together in light of these new developments. “I can imagine that it’s going to be a team effort to help Elena. It’s going to be very odd,” he says. “And for the brothers, it’s kind of like the walk of shame. There’s this girl you love, you were instrumental in altering her being. It’s going to be interesting.”

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Will Damon Get A New Love Interest?

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below...

Candice Accola Spills Season 4 Scoop

Candica Accola spills on Season 4 at the CW Upfronts...

“I don’t think they necessarily closed that story line at all,” she told me. “Characters take breathers … so I’m sure he’ll return.”

OK, you can officially breathe a massive sight of relief. (I know I did!) I also had to ask Candice for her thoughts on new vampire Elena (Nina Dobrev), specifically whether she expects Caroline to take her under her wing and show her the ways of the fang.

“I think she’ll definitely be a part of helping Elena through the transition,” she said. “I can’t see it all going perfectly, but I’m really excited.”

As for how Candice thinks Caroline will react when she discovers that Tyler (Michael Trevino) is actually possessed by Klaus, she had one word to describe her emotional state: ”disturbed!”

Season 4 Press Release

Based on the best-selling book series, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is the story of two vampire brothers, obsessed with the same gorgeous girl, who are battling to control the fate of an entire town. In season one, Stefan and Damon Salvatore returned to their hometown of Mystic Falls, Virginia, for very different reasons. Stefan was determined to get to know Elena Gilbert, who bears a striking resemblance to Katherine Pierce, the beautiful but ruthless vampire the brothers knew and loved - in 1864. 

Damon, on the other hand, was intent on releasing Katherine from the tomb where he believed she was trapped by a witch's spell all those years ago. In the explosive season finale, Elena's uncle set a plan in motion that saw the return of the vengeful Katherine Pierce. In season two, Katherine's appearance and her precise manipulation threw a wrench into the love triangle between Stefan, Elena and Damon. Stefan and Damon later faced their greatest challenge yet - the arrivals of Elijah and Klaus, two of the powerful "original" vampires. Season three revealed the history of Klaus and The Original Family, as well as the surprising friendship Klaus and his sister Rebekah shared with Stefan decades earlier - until Klaus compelled Stefan to forget they'd ever met. In the present day, Klaus' return led to Stefan's descent back to his violent "Ripper" ways. Elena and Damon worked together to bring Stefan back from the edge, even as they struggled with the guilt of their growing bond. 

Meanwhile, Klaus found himself irresistibly drawn to Caroline Forbes, forcing Caroline's boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood, to break his sire bond to Klaus and claim Caroline as his own. Finally, the life of Alaric Saltzman, Elena and Jeremy's trusted teacher and guardian, took a terrifying turn when Klaus' mother, Esther, used witchcraft and Bonnie's unwilling help to turn Alaric into a powerful vampire who hunts down and destroys other vampires - the ultimate vampire hunter. Season Four begins with the knowledge that everything is changing. As Elena and her friends enter into the final stretch of high school before graduation sends them off on different paths, their bond to their home town of Mystic Falls takes on a deeper meaning when a new villain seems intent on destroying it. 

The series stars Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore, Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore, Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert, Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett, Candice Accola as Caroline Forbes, Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan, Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood and Joseph Morgan as Klaus. 

Based on the series of books by L. J. Smith, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is from Bonanza Productions Inc., Outerbanks Entertainment and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson ("Scream," "Dawson's Creek"), Julie Plec ("Kyle XY," "Wasteland"), Leslie Morgenstein ("Gossip Girl," "Private") and Bob Levy ("Gossip Girl," "Privileged").

Nina Dobrev On What To Expect From Elena In Season 4

After three seasons, Elena Gilbert finally -- and accidentally -- became immortal on The Vampire Diaries' finale Thursday.

When Nina Dobrev's character drowned -- she begged Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) to save Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) instead -- her friends presumed her to be dead. What they didn't know, however, was that Elena had vampire blood in her system, and she would soon join Stefan, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) as a vampire.

"I liked having one human and one vampire, because then I get the best of worlds and I get to do a variety of things," said Dobrev, who also plays a vampire named Katherine Pierce. "But, then again, it is going to be different for me and it's going to be challenge. It's going to be more fun to sort of explore that world."

"We're definitely going to see her whole transition into becoming a vampire. We're not going to skip over it, as we have with others," Dobrev assured us. "Becoming a vampire, everything you feel is heightened. . . We know what Elena's like: She has high morals, she looks out for other people. So what's Elena going to be like with those things accentuated?"

Teen witch Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) won't likely be pleased to learn Elena is now a vampire. "Their relationship is probably going to be so strained because of that. Her best friend, the one person she's been fighting to protect, is now what she's been fighting against all this time," Dobrev explained. "It's going to be interesting."

Prior to her death, Elena also made a tough decision when she chose to be with Stefan instead of his brother, Damon.

"It does kind of feel like you're disappointing half the people. But you're always going to disappoint half the people with this kind of storyline," Dobrev said of the series' central love triangle. "I think we gave them both what they wanted at some point or another during the season, so it's not like we shunned them or disregarded their wants."

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Julie Plec On The Finale And What's To Come Part 4

In Season 2, you guys told the story of Caroline's transition to being a vampire so beautifully. How do you expect Elena's transition to be different, so that it feels like a new story?

I think the differnce here is that you have two vampires, two brothers who love this girl equally, who are going to have significantly diverging opinions about how it should all go down and what the most effective way to be a vampire is. One of the things we've seen in the last three years, especially this season in the [1912] flashback, is that neither of them particularly took to vampire life all that well. Damon was bitter and pissed off about it for 50 years before he realized he could have fun, and Stefan had his own demons, his Ripperhood. They're both going to have an opinion on how to help Elena. Stefan's method was very successful for Caroline, and we'll see him trying to teach Elena, where Damon is taking the opposite point of view. We're going to have a lot of conflict attached to those opinions.

Do we know whose blood Meredith used to turn her? We know she did have a stash of Damon's blood.
That will be a good question to ask and answer when we come back. 

Was there a debate in the writer's room as to whether she would choose Stefan or Damon in this episode, or did you always agree that it would be Stefan?

We were heading toward the end of the road knowing that as a human, Stefan was Elena's choice. We also knew what was going to happen at the end of the episode. Elena is no longer a human when she wakes up and when the memories come back and when her whole life goes upside-down. Who's to say what that does to her? Who's to say what kind of person she becomes, and how that impacts who she loves and why she loves them? I'm not saying that's going to send her running instantly into Damon's arms, absolutely not, but it's going to cloud the issue even more.

Her kiss with Stefan in her house was the first one they've shared all season.

We really wanted to see Stefan and Elena come back together after a really long and really horrible season. She was his champion and fought for him, even when he didn't deserve to be fought for, she still came back and said "I couldn't stop loving you, I could never stop loving you." That deserved payoff. When we wrote "The Last Day" last year, we knew where Stefan was going, and that was the last romantic episode those two were going to have probably for a year. We knew it was all going to go to hell, so finally being able to have one tiny moment of intimacy was nice.

The flashback to Elena and Damon's first meeting was a big shock for fans. In terms of your thought process there, what was the purpose of it? How did it drive the story?

It serves multiple functions. When Damon shows up in the pilot, he knows a lot about Elena, so there's always been a question about where he's been and what he was up to. How did he know all this? He clearly didn't just walk into Mystic Falls with his crow. He's been around too. We always said that one day we'd find out what he's been doing. It was us wanting to give Damon something to fight for. Ric is unbeatable, a jillion times stronger than Damon. Damon was a dead man, and Ric was relishing beating him, and Damon had nothing left to live for, having been passed over once again. It was just that slight little thing that she said to him, when she was just trying to take the sting off: "Hey, maybe if you and I had met first." She was just trying to soften the blow. But in reality, he had this memory that gave him the will to fight back. I love that moment, where Ric's about to drive the stake into him, and he's like "You know what? I'm not ready to die today."

Bonnie took charge in this episode, helping Klaus into Tyler's body. Was that a function of her being tired of being kicked around all season, or was it the influence of the dark magic she tapped into for the spell last week?
It's definitely a result of being kicked around all season. It's Bonnie saying, "I'm not the pawn anymore. Don't underestimate me and don't tell me what to do." I think the witches sending her to Alaric really burned her, because she'd already been fighting to get her strength against the vampires, and then her own "sisters," as they said, betrayed her. For Bonnie, this is like "Hey, look. I've got a point of view, I've got the ability to do something about it, and damn it, I'm going to do it." To tap into that kind of power she had to dig even deeper into her darkness. In the first episode back, I can't imagine that we won't be looking for some kind of magic to prevent Elena from having to transition. It'll be a question of how far Bonnie is willing to go to help her friend, and what are the repercussions and consequences attached to that.

Does Klaus owe Bonnie one now? Or does he never owe anyone anything?

I think that this definitely changes the dynamic between Klaus and Bonnie a little bit. 

When "Tyler" was saying goodbye to Caroline and talking about her beautiful future, was he already Klaus, at that point?

Yeah. We definitely were hinting at that with the "you're beautiful and you'll have a great future" line. That was a classic Klaus-Caroline line, so we wanted to give a little hint there. All that smooching and all that emotion wasn't Tyler at all, in fact, was Klaus. 

We didn't see Klaus's body turn to ash, so I assume there's some plan in place to keep Joseph Morgan in the mix.

Yep. I'd say there's a fairly significant chance, if not a 99.9% likelihood that body did not burn up in that coffin.

Before we see him return to that body, is he going to have a little fun being Tyler?

Yep. He's definitely going to prolong his stay, at least in the first episode, due to circumstance. Whatever goes down between Caroline and "Tyler" in the first episode will actually be happening between Caroline and Klaus, so we'll have some fun there.

I know you said Stefan and Elena will definitely make a go of being in a relationship again, but outside of that, where is Stefan's head right now? How is he looking at the choices that he made? He looked absolutely wrecked in that final scene.

He was destroyed for so many reasons. Meredith had already broken the news to him, so in that moment of lying over Elena's body, he was mourning her as a human and realizing that ultimately he was unable to save her from the one thing she never wanted, which was to be a vampire. That's going to weigh on him really heavily and it's going to piss Damon off like nobody's business, that Stefan saved Matt instead of Elena. Stefan had a big burden in that moment and what he had to do was be true to Elena. It's like choosing to take someone off life support because it was their wish or to keep them on because you can't let them go. It was what she wanted, and Stefan, if nothing else, has always been able to let her make her decision. If, as a vampire, she starts to make the wrong decisions, then we'll see a shift in Stefan and how he feels about helping Elena through things. I think we'll start to get a glimpse at the different sides of Stefan in a relationship, where it's not going to be all peaches and cream and love and unconditional, unwavering support of Elena's decision. Elena is no longer Elena.

Would you say that the love triangle will be stronger than ever next season?

Yes. I say that at my own peril, but yes. People can get frustrated by the love triangle, people can find it grating or whatever, but the premise of the show is two vampire brothers and their love for the same girl. That's where we started and it's always going to exist in the landscape of "The Vampire Diaries." Some years it'll be more in the forefront than other years, when it's delicately laid in the background. Elena becoming a vampire will make it fresh. It changes things, and makes us ask new questions. It makes things a lot deeper. It's all part of this process of growing up. As our characters are working toward graduation and all kinds of life decisions -- do I go to college, do I leave my hometown, is my high school boyfriend going to be my college boyfriend -- all those life things, it's all going to be supported where Elena is with Damon and Stefan.


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Julie Plec On the Finale & Whats To Come Part 3

Why can't they take a route that doesn't include Wickery Bridge?

It's the only way in and out of town, maybe, but I think from now on they'll be a little bit gun-shy.

Please tell me Tyler isn't really dead.

No, he's not dead. In fact, if you look at the times we've used the spell in the past with Klaus and Alaric and Esther and Rebekah the magic is the same. So if and when Klaus vacates Tyler's body, Tyler will still be there.

How will Stefan following Elena's orders to save Matt and not her affect him?

The first episode is a lot of people feeling a lot of guilt, a lot of torment and Elena having to manage all of that in the midst of realizing she has a big decision to make. Obviously Stefan knew he was going to come right back for Elena, but she ran out of time. That is a decision that's going to haunt him and infuriate Damon, but probably lead Elena to explain even more to Stefan why she chose him because of that.

How will Damon react to Stefan's fatal choice?

This could drive a pretty severe wedge between the brothers. Certainly the intention is not to subtly and forcefully rip them apart; it's more that they're going to have different points of view. It's going to bring back a lot of the issues about Damon when he came to Mystic Falls and what he expected his vampire life to be. They're just not going to agree. It's going to be frustrating for both of them, and even though they're in it together, they're coming at it from different sides.

Does the flashback scene between Elena and Damon soften the finality of Elena picking Stefan?

It was meant to illuminate that we don't have all the information and neither does Elena. She's made her decision and she believes in that decision wholeheartedly based on who she is in her life and what she knows, and now she's going to wake up and be a completely different person and have all this new information. Do I think it's going to immediately make her say, "Oh, I've chosen wrong?" No, but it's yet another thing that's going to be in her head confusing her about her feelings.

How soon will we see Elena's transition?

The transition of it all will take place in the first episode. There's a nice 24-hour window there and that will be particularly dramatic and traumatic. Looking past that, all I can say is if Elena becomes a vampire, if you really think about who she is and what we've seen in her, she's fiercely protective, she spent a lot of time in this last season getting physically stronger, her compassion is her greatest gift and her greatest weakness, so in death that becomes magnified.

When will the others learn about Bonnie's spell?

Bonnie's first thing that's going to have to happen is that we're going to learn how long she has to keep this secret, what kind of bargain she made with Klaus, is she going to be able to tell her friends, specifically Caroline, right away? As a witch who can be looked at for solution, trying to figure out a way to keep Elena from having to be a vampire is going to be high on her priority list and she's going to have a very limited amount of time to do it. In the first episode, we'll see Bonnie step right up to the precipice of the darkest form of her magic and need to either jump on in or stay back on the ledge.

And how will Caroline react to all of this information?

She's just been completely bamboozled and experienced the most horrifying and devastating moment of her entire life, so realizing that it wasn't real and that all of those painful goodbyes were not Tyler but were with Klaus, that's going to be a low blow.

The finale was so action-packed. Was there anything you had to cut for time?

I loved a line where after Alaric confronts Meredith, he's walking out the door he looks back at her and says, "Too bad, you and me, it was kind of love at first sight, wasn't it?" I loved it, but ultimately the story was told just fine without it.


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Julie Plec On The Finale And What's To Come - Part 2

How did the cast react to the finale, especially given how much is changing for their characters?
They were very, very, very positive and supportive of the finale. So many of them found a beauty in what they felt like was returning to all the things they loved most about the show in the early episodes of the series. Stuff that was simple and pure and steeped in character and emotional. And they loved having Sara Canning back in their world.

At PaleyFest, when someone asked if Elena will become a vampire like in the books, you very coyly replied, “We’ll see.” How hard was it to keep this secret?
Oh my God, when that person asked, my heart just fell down from my chest to my toes! All I thought was, “Answer this as though she isn’t. As you would answer it if you hadn’t spend the entire year in the writers room planning for this.” [Laughs]

So she’s definitely becoming a vampire?
They’re going to try to pull out all the stops to try to prevent it when we come back, but I think the writing is on the wall as far as her journey.

In the past, Elena’s been very adamant about not wanting that life. How will this affect her?
It’s going to affect her in a lot of ways. It changes everything for her. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a struggle. It’s going to illuminate a lot of things about who she is, and it’s going to screw with her head and her emotions. It’s going to be tough. But the beauty of Elena is now we’ll get to see her try to rise above it and be a champion in spite of this. We’ll see how hard that is and how long it takes her to become a functioning vampire, if at all.

Given how crazy her life has become and all the supernatural elements in it, was this inevitable for Elena?
Yeah, I think so. Who knows if the books hadn’t turned her into a vampire at the end of book one if we would have gone down this road or if it never would have occurred to us to go down this road? That’s hard to say. But when executive producer Kevin Williamson and I signed on to this project, we did know that, at some point, we would be turning her. It really just was a matter of when. It’s definitely the next chapter in her story.

Were you surprised it came this early? Most shows would save this for a series finale.
No, there was actually a moment at the beginning of Season 2 where Kevin and I thought we would get here by the end of Season 2. We didn’t want to, so I’m glad we didn’t. But we were following the path of her character. Heroines are very difficult to write. It’s very difficult to keep them dynamic and fresh and new. We knew that we would reach a breaking point where we didn’t really want to see Elena continue to go through the same thing again and again and again.

At what point did you come up with the idea that Damon met Elena first and erased her memory of that moment?
The details of that scene happened as we were talking about the end of the season. But the question that we’ve always had since the beginning of the series in the writers room is, “Where was Damon while Stefan was entering school and meeting Elena?” Damon came into the pilot armed with a lot of knowledge, which, in my opinion, implies that he’s been there for a little while. So we’ve always wanted to ask and answer that question. It felt like the right answer there was [that] he was having his own experience with Elena. [Laughs]

One of the side effects of becoming a vampire is that she’ll remember all the things Damon compelled her to forget. How will that effect Elena’s choice?
It’s just more information. I don’t think anything is going to make her sit up and say, “Oh my God, I made the wrong decision!” and change her mind in Episode 1 [of next season]. But in the ongoing journey of her point of view about how she feels about each of these brothers, it’s going to impact her feelings for Damon and her understanding of Damon.

Does Damon stand more of a fighting chance with her now?
Both brothers continue to stand a fighting chance because we’re only halfway through the series. So yes. [Laughs]

This does redefine the love triangle in a way.
Yeah. We’ve been in the writers room for four weeks after we wrapped the season, talking about Season 4. The one thing that got us all so excited is that everything we’re talking about feels both familiar in all the right ways, of the early parts of the series, and also fresh. It feels so fresh. And yet, it’s the same people that we know and love. They’re just going through new experiences. There’s a lot we can do here. We’re really excited about it.

Two burning questions about Stefan: Does he know she picked him? And when he was crying over her body, was it because she had died or because he knew she was going to come back as a vampire?
He does not know that she picked him. I like to think that that moment when he’s crying over her body, he’s crying over the loss of her human life and that now she’s going to be the thing that she never wanted. I don’t think Meredith would have been like, “Oh, I’m going to keep that secret from Stefan, but tell Damon.” [Laughs]

Tell me about the decision to kill off Alaric.
Oh… [Long pause] It’s too painful. [Laughs] What was really important to us was that Elena lost everything, as far as adult parenting [and] that she as a human had no support structure in her home. So Alaric as the guardian of Elena and Jeremy had a shelf life at the end of this season because of where we were going with [her]. Alaric’s character, in my opinion, could have been sitting in that bar next to Damon for the next four years, every episode, having a bourbon, and we all would have been perfectly happy. But Matt Davis is better than that and deserves more than that. Now’s his time to shine. [If he has] the opportunity to go out there and shine on another show while still being available to us should we decide to have a few ghostly visits from dear, departed Alaric, then it’s the best of both worlds. That being said, every single scene that I had my hands in from the time he became his alter-ego to the end of this season, I would sit at the computer and weep. Tears would fall onto the keys, knowing that in a lot of ways this was goodbye. It was definitely very emotionally traumatic for me. [Laughs]

What about Joseph Morgan? Have we seen the last of him?
No, we have not. It is as temporary as when he was inside Alaric’s body.

So both of their vessels are OK should Klaus get out of the Tyler’s body?
Yes. Desiccated Klaus is a little crispy right now, but he’s probably salvageable.

It seemed for a little while there that Klaus was being written off. Why did you decide to bring him back in this way?
Rarely do you have a character that comes in [during] the middle of the series and just explodes and an actor that embodies him so well that people love to hate him and hate to love him. Joseph Morgan as Klaus is pretty special. Though we wanted our heroes to have a victory after all this time, we also realized that there’s still so much more of Joseph Morgan as Klaus that we need to see on the show. We tried to make sure we got both the win for our heroes and the win for our show, which is still having Joseph a part of it.

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