While she may now be juggling three shows on the same network at once now, Julie Plec still managed to bring out some good teases and previews for her first CW outing, The Vampire Diaries, during Saturday’s panel.  Moderated by Debra Birnbaum, the panel showed a recap clip of the previous seasons building up to the last season finale, and fans got a little taste of what to expect in the upcoming season.  The clips showed Silas/Stefan wielding his influence over a town square full of Mystic Falls locals, and some hope for Damon and Elena.

Along with Plec, EP Caroline Dries, and cast members Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Candice Accola, and Kat Graham were on hand to preview what expect for the next season.  Hit the jump for some highlights of the panel.

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    Plec confirms that the writers chose to keep Elena and Damon happy for this season, for at least for a while, while all of the other chaos goes on around him.  Somerhalder wasn’t sure Damon was going to end up with the girl, causing Wesley and he to get in a compliment off, ending with Wesley acing him by bringing up the patented “Smolder Holder.”
  • Wesley is delighted to be playing Silas, claiming he loves that he gets to play someone evil, wanting to get back to something similar to the Ripper part of Stefan’s past but knowing that they had already cover that.  He does miss working with Dobrev more though, saying, “I like being evil, but I love you.”  However, Plec said that Silas may not be the biggest bad of the season, and more evil might be in store.
  • Dobrev agrees that Katherine isn’t going to take well to being a human, having lived so long as a vampire.  An upcoming episode sees Katherine getting a cold and having absolutely no idea what to do with herself.
  • Both Elena and Caroline will be headed to college, which Wesley doesn’t understand at all.  “They’re murderers!” he said, but Somerhalder and Plec agreed on them wanting to pursue higher education because it would be easy for them to take a couple years out and work their way into whatever college they want.
  • Expect Caroline hosting and attending many parties in the future.  Accola detailed Caroline’s desire to make college work even as a vampire, and hopefully helping her boyfriend Tyler get in as well, despite all of the Caroline and Klaus fans in the crowd.  Plec said never say never for a Caroline/Klaus reunion, even with The Originals factoring in.
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    With a very dead Bonnie now on her hands, Graham said it’s going to be fun to explore the other side.  Graham thought that there hadn’t been much more to explore with Bonnie, but this new challenge in her way is something she’s looking forward to.  The only person she can interact with is Jeremy, so Graham said that’s going to add a bit more depth to their relationship.  She didn’t say how long Bonnie can keep her ruse up with her friends, but she can only stay secretly dead for so long.  Plec comments that Bonnie still might not realize how much she has sacrificed for Jeremy and her friends.
  • Jeremy’s explanation for his reemergence into the world of the living will be explained within minutes of the first episode of the season.  Somerhalder said that Damon and Jeremy will definitely be spending some more bonding time together this season.
  • Plec shared that we will see some of Silas’ origin story, and possibly see a bit of his past with the powerful witch Qetsiyah as well.
  • Dobrev thinks that Katherine deserved the cure purely to get back at her for all of the evil she had done, and to finally make her vulnerable.  For Elena, nothing good came from Katherine, especially for killing Jeremy.  The fight scene between Katherine and Elena was a fun scene for Dobrev to film that took a long time to rehearse and film, but she’s very happy with the outcome.  When asked which was her favorite, Dobrev couldn’t pick.  She does think Katherine takes so much time in the hair and make-up chair, but that she gets to be more evil and have fun with her.
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    On the subject of a Vampire Diaries movie, the cast and producers said that they would be down for it, but that decision is not up to them.  Every episode is “approached like a movie,” said Plec.  They are approaching their 100th episode, but Plec refused to reveal any specific plans as for what will be involved.
  • Dries said that we’ll get to see what the other side, where the dead reside, look like through Bonnie’s eyes. No specifics on if we’ll see any beloved deceased characters, but Dries did say the best way to win Plec over when pitching stories is to include Alaric.
  • A fan asked if there would be anything involving Tatia, the original Petrova in the Pretrova Doppelgänger line that includes Katherine and Elena, in the future, and Plec said that she could fit into the mythology somewhere in the future.
  • Somerhalder and Plec would bring back Alaric from the dead if they could.  Graham and Dries mentioned that Bonnie’s grandmother might make her way back into the fold as well.  Plec said the other side might not be entirely shut down and off the table as of right now.
  • On the opposite end of the spectrum, mostly everyone was quiet on who they would kill off.  Plec said she had been discussing some crazy things in that vein in emails from this week, so a big kill could be coming up.  Somerhalder suggested Damon get “killed off” so he could go vacation in the Caribbean.  “We all probably have someone we want to kill, but we’re not going to tell you here at Comic-Con,” Wesley concluded.