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'Vampire Diaries' premiere: Executive producer previews season 4

The 'Vampire Diaries' premiere raised a lot of questions about the future of protagonist Elena and her friends and love interests. Executive producer Julie Plec previews what's coming up on the show.

Looks like the supernatural baddies of Mystic Falls won鈥檛 have Elena to push around anymore鈥� or at least, doing so won鈥檛 be so easy now that she鈥檚 a bloodsucker! With that shocker, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES took things to a whole new level. So what happens next? Let鈥檚 ask executive producer Julie Plec!

So has having Elena become a vamp been in the cards all along?
听JULIE PLEC: It was three years in the making, in that we knew when we started the series that we鈥檇 get there eventually. At one point, we thought we wouldn鈥檛 get there until Season 5, and then at one point contemplated getting there by the end of Season 2! We began Season 3 knowing how we were going to end it, so all the choices we made and everything that we did was all trying to very gently and quietly tee that up and put Elena in a situation where that was the biggest move that could happen in her life.

Is moving forward terrifying, given what a game changer this is?
听PLEC: It鈥檚 exciting, because it鈥檚 fresh, you know? It gets us jazzed every day, because we don鈥檛 feel like we鈥檙e just retreading the same old stuff. It鈥檚 daunting, because we think it鈥檚 awesome, but if nobody else likes it, there is nothing we can do. We have put the show on this course, and there鈥檚 no going back. So if it gets rejected, then we鈥檙e going to have to take a beat and think about what we鈥檝e done. That said, I think people will like it, because it鈥檚 still Elena. It鈥檚 just Elena with a dozen, two dozen more layers to herself.

You鈥檝e thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Nina Dobrev (Elena). How is she handling playing yet another version of the same character?
听PLEC: Nina is nothing if not a total champion, and she loves to be challenged as an actress. So far, so good! She鈥檚 finding all the nuances in the character that are different than Katherine and different than the human Elena. A lot of actors during Season 4 of a TV series don鈥檛 necessarily get to wake up and be somebody new, so I think she鈥檚 very excited about that.

So how does Elena being a vampire impact her relationships with the Salvatore brothers?
听PLEC: Ultimately, the pitch of the show back in the beginning was a love triangle between two vampire brothers and their love for the same girl, so it鈥檚 certainly something we鈥檙e not going to just lock up in a briefcase and put away. It鈥檚 always going to be there. What鈥檚 great about turning Elena into someone 鈥渘ew鈥� is that it takes where she was with Damon and Stefan and puts it in a blender and spins it around. We don鈥檛 really know what鈥檚 going to come out of that. Because this is a new person, we don鈥檛 know how she鈥檒l connect with them and how they鈥檒l react to the changes in her. It adds a lot of fun, new dynamics to this triangle.听

One of the highlights of last season was Joseph Morgan as Klaus. A lot of people were surprised he managed to survive. Is there a danger of falling in love with your villain and, by keeping him around, turning him into less of a threat?
听PLEC: With Joseph, certainly our intention was to kill him. And then we changed our minds because he鈥檚 so good, and we felt it was too soon to say good-bye to that character. So a lot of what you鈥檙e going to be seeing at the beginning of Season 4 is him at his most devilish and darkest. He is such a magnificent, nasty villain! The last thing we want to do is cut his legs out from under him, so we鈥檙e going to get to see some of nasty Klaus in action.

With Matt Davis鈥� Alaric and Ganiel Gillies鈥� Elijah gone, any plans to bring characters in to fill the void?
听PLEC: Well, the good news is that both of them have the ability to return to our show at any time in their contracts. They love us, and we love them so much. With Alaric being dead, of course, we won鈥檛 see much of him. But we鈥檝e definitely got some new faces. Some of them are more mysterious, some of them are younger. There鈥檚 a new character named April who is a high school student that returns to town after a couple of years away and kind of lands right in the middle of everything. And then there鈥檚 a new vampire hunter named Connor who comes to town. He鈥檚 no Alaric. He鈥檚 a hardcore, humorless, take-no-prisoners, get-it-done character, and he鈥檚 a bit of a threat for our heroes. More so than they expected to come across!

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