'It's not going to be easy to move on with his life because his life has been Elena,' exec producer Caroline Dries says of Damon after the big farewell in the season finale.
- May 15, 2015
AceShowbiz - "The Vampire Diaries" fans now must be grieving after watching the season 6 finale as Nina Dobrev made her last appearance on the show. The great loss is also felt by Damon (Ian Somerhalder) who just said goodbye to the love of his life, Elena (Dobrev).
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Caroline Dries addresses what will happen to Damon now that he has to live without Elena. "It's not going to be easy to move on with his life because his life has been Elena," she says. "It's interesting now going into season seven, to write scenes where he's not all about Elena, but at the end of the day, that's kind of what his big story is: life after Elena. How is he going to cope with that? It'll be interesting. We have a good plan for season seven, but a big question is who is Damon Salvatore without Elena in his immediate life."
Of whether Damon will get a new love interest, Dries says, "She told him, 'Go live your life. I'm going to be here when I wake up, and we can be together.' She doesn't want him sitting around like a monk, being chaste in the meantime. But Damon's still in love with her. It's not like he's going to start sleeping around or having girlfriends. He needs to grieve, and see who he is. Any girl we set him up with, or we tried to force him into a new relationship with, the fans would just hate it - hate her, for sure - so it would just never click. We're very much aware of that, and we don't want to see that either."
Dries confirms that the last scene in the season finale took a leap and fans will have an answer regarding what happened in between those times in season 7 premiere. "It will be answered in the premiere and it's not what you think," she teases.
As for Alaric (Matt Davis), "he's going to start in a very dark place, and go through the process of grief: denial, anger. He'll be forever changed as a character by what happened here. We have a cool story for him coming up. He's very much a new man," Dries dishes.
Dries also reveals what will happen to the relationships between Damon and Alaric as well as between the Salvatore brothers after the great loss. "Damon is Alaric's best friend, and can relate to Alaric better than anyone at this moment. And so he's going to be there for him as a brother, and be a shoulder for him to cry on," she shares.
Of Damon and Stefan (Paul Wesley), she adds, "They're going to need to come together, because, as you saw, Lily (Annie Wersching) has reconnected with her family. We're teeing up the big crisis of season seven, which is Salvatore family versus Lily Salvatore heretic family. They're going to be the main conflict of season seven once we launch into it."
Dries additonally says that the show set up the future for some characters, particularly Stefan and Caroline (Candice Accola), post-Elena when Stefan found out that Caroline loves him. "Next season will be the big 'will they or won't they' Steroline story. And so we'll be rooting for them to get together. It's the heart and soul love story of next season," Dries says.
Meanwhile, Bonnie (Katerina Graham) will "continue to be her badass self she's evolved into this season" after [SPOILER ALERT!] Elena sacrificed herself so that Bonnie could live her life. Dries adds, "She'll have a closeness with Damon. They're going to remain friends, but he's going to rub off on her a bit. It'll be fun to watch them together."
"The Vampire Diaries" returns with the seventh season this fall.
