‘The Vampire Diaries’ Season 6 Preview: What’s On The Way For Matt, Stefan, Alaric & More

“The Vampire Diaries” returns Thursday night on The CW with the premiere of Season 6.

It’s a big episode for Nina Dobrev’s Elena Gilbert, who lost her love, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) in the Season 5 finale. And Damon not making it back from the collapsing other side created a new challenge for the writers of “TVD” as they went into crafting the new episodes.

Caroline Dries, an executive producer on the show, told TV reporters at a screening of the premiere that the show’s scribes were thinking about, “how do we maintain Elena and Damon’s love story, while he’s not present, and so that was our challenge as writers.”

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You’ll have to wait until Thursday night at 8/7c on The CW to see what happens next in the Elena/Damon storyline. But, in the meantime, there are a lot of new faces and elements coming to the drama to start thinking about as the show returns.

Inside the humans-only Mystic Falls, we’ll meet a new character called Tripp, played by “Eureka’s” Colin Ferguson. “He came about because we wanted to show Matt thriving in Mystic Falls, without supernaturals,” Dries said. “Every episode Matt is having his life in jeopardy or somebody’s threatening to kill him, or something, so it’s like, what’s Matt’s life like when he can just not have to have a death threat every five minutes, and we kind of wanted to give him like a father figure type, like coach kind of guy and so that’s where Tripp came out of. But, you know, it’s Mystic Falls/’Vampire Diaries.’ Not everyone is who they say they want to be.”

Dries added that Tripp will become a “layered, dynamic character” who isn’t “necessarily a good guy or bad guy.”

Alaric is set to meet someone who also seems normal – a woman named Jo, played by Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (“Hit The Floor”). “One of the problems he’s going to be having is just how to like, go on a normal date and like be a normal guy again,” Dries said of Matthew Davis’ character who recently returned from the other side. “And she’s kind of gonna bring that side out of him. … That’s what his struggle’s gonna be.”

Another person who will be spending time with a new woman is Stefan (Paul Wesley). His storyline ushers in Ivy, played by “Days of Our Lives” alum Emily Chang. “Ivy’s a potential love interest, and she kind of opens the door into this world of Stefan’s that we’ve never seen before,” Dries said.

But, don’t worry, Caroline/Stefan shippers, potential for that romance is still a possibility.

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“We’ll continue to play that,” Dries said, noting that, “Caroline’s not even realizing how deep her feelings are.”

Elena lost Damon, but Jeremy, lost Bonnie too, and he has his own way of dealing with things.

“He’s kind of feeling, I think, rightfully so, just really betrayed that Bonnie lied to him for all those episodes and kind of said, ‘I’m dying. See ya,’ over the phone, and so he’s going to like try to find some meaning in these first few episodes,” Dries hinted.

Things we won’t see in the season premiere, but coming up, include flashbacks involving Stefan and Damon.

“We will see an era we haven’t seen before in flashbacks and it will help tie together a bunch of storylines,” Dries said.

Dries also confirmed reports of a new villain on the way.

“Yes, we are getting a new villain. He does break the mold. He is a just like a crazy person and he’s super fun to write and the actor’s name is Chris Wood,” she said (Chris recently played Carrie’s love interest in “The Carrie Diaries”).

“He’s very charismatic and charming and psychotic and likable and unlikable in all like the right ways,” Dries continued. “We get to meet him in a few episodes and he’s gonna stick around for a while, hopefully.”

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And finally, Michael Malarkey’s Enzo is not in the premiere, but Dries confirmed the charming Brit will return in Episode 2.

“It’s funny because we’ve really only seen Enzo kind of in the context of Damon. Damon is his best friend, he’s like Damon’s cell mate and so Damon dying obviously like took a toll on Enzo, which we never actually saw,” Dries said.

“The Vampire Diaries” returns Thursday night at 8/7c on The CW.

Jolie Lash

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