As we spoke to the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries at Comic-Con this past weekend, it sounded like the show’s fate may already be decided.
The Vampire Diaries season 7 premieres this fall, and with it will come the biggest change the series has ever had: No Elena Gilbert. Naturally, everyone is wondering how the dynamics of the show will change now that the tip of the love triangle is no longer there.
Ian Somerhalder touched on Elena’s disappearance during our interview. “This is Mystic Falls without Elena Gilbert,” he said. “We want to go back, back to the season 1 and 2 storytelling of the show where it was fun, and sexy and volatile. The first three seasons of the show solidified this really interesting, fun story. This is a melodramatic teenage vampire soap opera, but people fell in love with these characters.”
Somerhalder didn’t skirt around the elephant in the room either, and dropped this interesting nugget to Hypable: “This very well may be the last season of the show,” he said. “We have to go out the way we came in — fighting tooth and nail for every breath of high quality television, and not get bogged down in the mythology of it. It’s the human component of these characters that makes them lovable.”
While there hasn’t been a single word from The CW on whether or not The Vampire Diaries will be renewed past the upcoming seventh season, we could tell from the demeanor of the cast in the press room that they wouldn’t be too surprised if it ended this year.
Speaking of bringing things back to the feelings in season 1, executive producer Caroline Dries explained that we’re going to be seeing more of a friendship bond between Caroline and Bonnie. “One of our writers noticed that we haven’t had any best friend moments, so he wrote [a scene in episode 4]. It’s one of those happy things that remind you of season 1.”
In terms of what drives the show, Dries said “romance is still the core” of the The Vampire Diaries. “I love a good romance that I can come home to and cuddle with at the end of the day,” she explained.
That’s not to say that the show won’t look at the family dynamics of the Salvatores, but those who were hoping that the show would follow suit with The Originals should know that these are still going to be two very different shows. The Originals will be the Julie Plec creation you’ll want to watch if you want to see something family-oriented, while The Vampire Diaries will probably continue to have a bunch of intense make-out scenes scattered throughout the season.
All in all it looks like The Vampire Diaries season 7 is going to dramatically decrease the mythology building and focus on returning to its roots, and we look forward to what Plec and team bring to the table this fall.