Julie plec's interview with Hitfix on season finale and season 4

HitFix: The actors are all talking about what a HUGE, big, massive finale y'all have coming. How big is it going to be?

Julie Plec: Well, I tell you that it was huge, big, massive endeavor to shoot and I think it'll probably end up on the screen sorta like, "Oh. What's the big deal? What's the fuss?" No, but we had an underwater unit, a movie-sized underwater unit. We had massive, massive stunts involving an automobile. We have a huge fight sequence. We have a huge horror sequence. And then we have probably the biggest and most substantial series of emotional moments that the entire season has had. So it has definitely paid off a long journey for all these characters and hopefully -- I haven't seen it yet, so it's too soon to tell -- but hopefully it won't disappoint.

HitFix: The actors are also all talking about this as a "full circle" finale. Do you feel like all finales are, to some degree, ideally full circle finales? Or did this feel feel like a particularly good time to bring the full journey around?

Julie Plec: Certainly if you're thinking it through, you always want your beginning to have led directly to your ending. We try really hard at the beginning of the season, even in the limited amount of time that we have, to make sure that we know exactly where we're going, so that every choice we make is getting us there and that we're not just making up as we go along, which is, by the way, easy to do. When you're doing 22 episodes, it's really easy to just make it up as you go along. This particular episode, we started this year, it was senior year, it's still senior year and we've got our human character, Elena, who at the end of last season lost her guardian. She's lost her parents. She's a girl who has been struggling with her own innocence and growing up and turning 18 and wondering if her parents would be OK with her, with who she is and if they'd be proud of her, in spite of the fact that she's fallen for not one, but two vampires. As she's really reflecting on this kind of dreadful and horrible emotional year that she's had, we take her back to a time when life was just a lot simpler, when her parents were alive and she was a cheerleader dating the quarterback. Everything we've been doing all season with Elena's journey has been leading up to this episode and leading up to this choice that she has to make between these two brothers.

HitFix: Before I get to my next real question... Has Elena been doing homework this year?

Julie Plec: She's actually got an IQ of 140 and she doesn't need to study.

HitFix: But she has been attending classes at least semi-regularly?

Julie Plec: Yes. She has been attending classes. Her guardian is a history teacher, so she's got someone on the inside looking out for her and her current non-boyfriends are vampires who can compel and get good grades. I'm sure there's a little bit of trickery going on there, but yes, our kids, they go to school and they've got surprisingly good attendance records. It's just that we don't show them in school very often, because it's not as interesting, frankly, as the other stuff they get themselves into.

HitFix: Excellent. Now back to the real questions! When you approach a "big" finale, obviously viewers will be waiting for some characters to live, some characters to die, etc. How hard is it for you guys to create stakes -- pun, unfortunately intended, I guess -- for characters on show where anyone who's dead can return if the circumstances are right?

Julie Plec: It's a question that we debate a lot in the writers' room. There's the argument to be made of, "Seal up the other side, never go back to ghosts, never have flashbacks with older characters," because you want the stakes of death to be that powerful. But then there's something so emotional and profound about revisiting a character that you love and I think that there's something so bittersweet about seeing them again, knowing that they're never gonna be part of the day-to-day life of our heros, but that they're still out there somewhere. Certainly there will be stakes attached to the end of this season wherein there are characters that we might not see again when all is said and done. That will always be true.

HitFix: When you think back on characters from the show's past, how many would you describe as "Totally off-limits, off-the-table, never-coming-back, definitely really dead"?

Julie Plec: That's a good question. I think that any human who's ever died, we won't see again. Our rules of the other side are strictly about supernatural beings. Who else? Well, we'll get a little clue into Aunt Jenna's whereabouts in the next couple episodes and then, of course, we'll see Sarah Canning in the finale, just in a nice little flashback, back when everybody was normal and human. So... Yeah.

HitFix: I think that last question was really just my veiled way of asking what it's gonna take to have Vicki come back...

Julie Plec: [Laughter.] You know what? We almost put Vicki in the finale because we love Kayla Ewell so much. She's part of our family. Half the time, I've gotta be honest, the struggle is: Do we stick to our guns, creatively, and say, "That character will never be seen again?" or do we really want these wonderful members of our "Vampire Diaries" family to get to be able to come back and play with us a little bit every now and then? Kayla, I don't think we'll ever see Vicki again. We brought her back. She played her storyline and she said good-bye. She moved on. Matt said good-bye to her, so he closed that door. So I can't definitively say "never," but surely no plans to.

HitFix: You're gonna make me write fan-fiction about this, aren't you?

Julie Plec: Yes! Yes, I think you should! Absolutely.

HitFix: You talked about charting out your course at the beginning of the season and knowing where you're going at the end. But how much do you guys let yourselves be steered by discovering supporting or guest actors you simply want to work with more than you had expected to? Like if you have somebody like a Joseph Morgan or a Claire Holt and you see how well they mesh with things, how much can you let the story move and adapt around them?

Julie Plec: A lot. We definitely have learned great lessons and hard lessons. I won't tell you who the hard lessons were, but I will tell you who the great lessons are. Daniel Gillies is, for sure, the perfect example. That's a character that was introduced strictly with the intention of just bridging the season between the mention of Klaus and the introduction of Klaus. He was never meant to be an Original brother. He was never meant to be anything other than a lackey of Klaus'. But Daniel characterized Elijah with such magnificence and grace that he has become deeply, deeply embedded in our canon and, really, us wanting to keep Daniel Gillies as Elijah is what led us to the immortality of the Originals, the fact that they could not be killed, but for the stake from the white oak, all of these things that were never part of our original Klaus mythology. The entire Original family originated from Daniel Gillies being so good at his job.

HitFix: What was the original concept for Klaus?

Julie Plec: Well, Klaus was a villain in the books, so we were borrowing from that. We knew that he was going to come in and be this figure that nobody had ever met and nobody knew if he was real. He was going to have a Keyser Soze vibe and we would believe him to be the oldest living vampire, but in fact he would be a hybrid. He was going to be flying solo. It wasn't until we fell in love with Elijah that we came up with the idea that he had a family and that everything he did was, in its own way, either to punish or to rescue the people in his family.

HitFix: So then it just kinda happened that you were able to have the Originals as this kind of ultimate dysfunctional family this year to make us see how hypothetically functional Damon and Stefan could be if things got bad enough?

Julie Plec: Yeah. It's a nice counterpoint to the Salvatores. We thought they had problems, but they are totally functional in comparison.

HitFix: OK, so I desperately don't want to ask you to insult the shippers here, but how overly cautious have you had to get about the central love triangle? And has it become sorta a more delicate creature over three seasons than you might have originally planned or hoped for it to be?

Julie Plec: You know, it's funny. I think the answer is "Yes and No," weirdly. I can't lie and say that we aren't completely embedded in the shipper culture, just by nature of being on social media and being Twitter whores ourselves and not being able to tear ourselves away. So there's an influence and a passion that gets directed at us very, very aggressively that you can't ignore. But in a way it makes our jobs a little bit harder because we have to try to separate: Are these our creative instincts? Are these the instincts that are right for these characters? Or are we being influenced without even realizing it? So it makes us think more. It makes us really dig deeper into character more, which is a good thing. And then when we make decisions that we know are not going to be popular, we just sit in the writers' room and stare at each other in horror knowing what's in store, knowing that certain things are not going to go over very well with certain people and that we just might need to stay off Twitter and avoid the death threats for a while.

HitFix: You've talked about how there's a big choice that Elena has to make in the finale. How totally are you guys bracing yourselves for what's going to come from certain circles when we get to May?

Julie Plec: I might have to leave the country. [She laughs.] No, the choice that Elena has to make and the choice that she does make, for us it's really, really important that we took a good, strong look at Elena, at her character, at her wants and her needs, where she is in her life and that the way that she makes the decision after everything she's been through and the way that she expresses that decision to others, that it's honest and pure and real. Hopefully people who are fans of the show and fans of Elena and fans of real human behavior will understand and respect the choice that she makes, in spite of a percentage being very sad and another percentage being happy, it's where she is right now in her life and it's where we've been leading to all year for her. So we shall see, but it is not going to be pretty, I'll tell you that.

HitFix: The phrase you used a couple times there, "where she is in her life" implies that you don't view where she is in the finale as being necessarily the endgame, right?

Julie Plec: No, absolutely not! Here's the thing: This show can, and probably will, go on for many more years. This show is a journey of a teenage girl finding her way back to life through the love of one vampire and discovering maybe other elements of life through the love of another vampire, growing up, graduating high school, moving on. There's a whole road for her still to travel and our brothers are in the middle of their journey as well. For us to say that this is the one and only choice and no other choice will ever be made would be premature. We're just in the middle of our journey and I hope ultimately that people who ship one way or the other can understand. In the same way that we had to convince Ian Somerhalder that Damon being a good guy was part of a long road that he was traveling and that it was OK, you want to convince the fans that this is the midpoint of the story.

HitFix: Back to the nuts-and-boltsy stuff for a second: Are these guys going to college next year?

Julie Plec: No, not next year. Next year will be the completion of their senior year. We like to drag things out over in our world.

HitFix: You like to drag some stuff out, but as many of us have observed, the show burns through plot at a rather ridiculous rate. Does that ever concern you guys? Or at this point, are you convinced that you can go at this pace for ever and ever?

Julie Plec: When Kevin [Williamson] and I first started the show, we didn't have any time to think globally about the series. We just dove in and started. When you have six act breaks and a teaser -- which amount to seven act breaks over 41 minutes -- you've gotta burn through story, because you've got impress and you've gotta wow and you've gotta shock the audience with twists and turns every four-and-a-half minutes. I think that it was TV Guide who, in the middle of our season said, "We'd give this show an 'A,' except there's no way they can keep this up, so therefore they get an 'A-.'" We sorta looked at it and we were like, 'Hmmm. Well, that's a challenge." And every year we think, "Oh God, there's nowhere to go" and then we start... I've just been in the writers' room for Season 4 for the last three weeks with a small group of writers and we had this moment, the other day, when we looked around after two weeks of talking and realized that we have more emotional stuff, character stuff and mythology stuff going down in Season 4 than maybe we've ever had. And then, in talking Season 4, we said, "Oh no. That's gotta wait for Season 5." So suddenly it's an embarrassment of riches. For whatever reason, this genre and our characters and this world, it keeps organically creating more stories. Thank God!

HitFix: With that burn rate, are there any storylines that you think back on from the first two or two-and-a-half seasons that you really wish you could have spent more time on?

Julie Plec: I'd have to go back and really dissect it to be able to answer that. I think that there are things that may have worn out their welcome, ironically, a little bit. I think that there are stories that we meant to make more of that we pulled the plug on for various reasons. Again, I can't really say, because it would be rude. I think that it would have been really nice to explore more of the Bonnie and Grams relationship before we killed Grams, because that was untapped. One of the reasons that it was so nice to bring Grams back this year in the ghost episode was to give Bonnie another glimpse of that mentor figure in her life and that paved the way to Bonnie's storyline with her mother, which is still in line. So I have no regrets, for sure. I think we have a weird sense of rhythm where we kind of know when a story needs to come to an end.

HitFix: Do you ever look back at those first handful episodes and do you ever miss the crows and the fog and the vampire football?

Julie Plec: [Laughter.] No, we don't miss the crows and the fog, for sure. It's funny, because in hindsight, Kevin and I have both read a lot of people in the press and bloggers and fans alike who say that the show didn't really click in for them til about episode six. Yet for us and the actors, we always look back at the first five episodes of the series and say, "Gosh, that was a time when things were simple and clean and very, very based in tension and mystery and character and didn't have to rely so much on frills and action and stunts and visual effects and witch craft." We get very sentimental, as storytellers, for those early episodes. But then I remind everybody that nobody actually liked them very much, so it's OK that we've moved on.

HitFix: You mentioned how simple and clean things once were. Who's the person in the writers' room who keeps track of what everybody's supernatural status is, of whose parents and grandparents we've met, of who has what secret talisman?

Julie Plec: We have our PA Amy and our script coordinator Jeane [Wong], they keep the show bible, which is updated on episodic basis with family trees, with props and magical talismans. But mostly everything's right now in my head. One of the biggest struggles of the second half of Season 3 is I realized that my head is full and if I'm the only one that knows all this stuff that well, then we're screwed. So we started delegating and trying to pay more attention to the details. There's nothing worse than making a mistake and not realizing until a fan point points it out that a mistake has been made. That is a devastating occurrence.

HitFix: And I know that you're going to be speaking at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Monday (April 16). What are you going to be talking about and what drew you to that event?

Julie Plec: Dave Perkal has been our DP this year and he's a great guy and very cool and he and I get along famously and he came up to me a month ago and he said, "Hey, you want to go to Vegas? And talk? In front of a bunch of people?" And I said, "Talk? People? Vegas? Yes! I'm in." Our show, we strive very, very, very hard to make it look like a movie on a weekly basis. Our DP is as important of a storyteller as any of our writers and as any of directors and as any of our editors. We push each other really hard to get as much beauty and cinematic quality as we possibly can every episode and we fight a lot, in good ways, and we inspire each other a lot. So this is an opportunity to just kinda show some examples of different risks we've taken, different choices we've made in the storytelling process, visually, and to show off some of our work. So we're excited.

HitFix: Has that mandate changed since those early fog-and-crows episodes? How you've wanted to make the show look?

Julie Plec: No, when [director] Marcos Siega and [DP] Paul Sommers started the series, they said that they didn't want it to look like any other show on The CW or, frankly, any other show on network television. So it was just about finding our way into that, which includes a lot of long lens, really long lens, dropping the camera back 100 yards, when you can, to get a great long scope shot. Paul Sommers had a bunch of tricks-of-the-trade to make it not look like video. And then the better the cameras get, the sharper and more pristine the images get and the more television starts to look like a soap opera from another country, so we're combating that. We're combating technology.

Source Hitfix

Spoiler : Julie plec on Elenas decision between the brothers in the season finale

Vampire Diaries executive producer Julie Plec has confirmed that the upcoming season finale will see Elena (Nina Dobrev) make a choice between the Salvatore brothers.

The love triangle between Elena and vampire brothers Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has intensified over recent episodes.

In an interview with HitFix, Plec suggested that the episode will provoke a strong reaction from the show's fanbase, many of whom identify themselves firmly as either 'Stelena' or 'Delena' supporters.

She joked: "I might have to leave the country.

"No, for us it's really, really important that we took a good, strong look at Elena's character, at her wants and her needs, where she is in her life.

"Hopefully people who are fans of the show and fans of Elena and fans of real human behaviour will understand and respect the choice that she makes, in spite of a percentage being very sad and another percentage being happy.

"So we shall see, but it is not going to be pretty, I'll tell you that."

Asked whether this would be the final resolution, Plec responded: "No, absolutely not!

"This show is a journey of a teenage girl finding her way back to life through the love of one vampire and discovering maybe other elements of life through the love of another vampire, growing up, graduating high school, moving on.

"There's a whole road for her still to travel and our brothers are in the middle of their journey as well. For us to say that this is the one and only choice and no other choice will ever be made would be premature."

Actor Ian Somerhalder recently suggested that the brothers will bond in forthcoming episodes, despite their shared affections for Elena.

Source Digital spy

Vid : Julie Plec on season 4

Julie plec teases on Delena motel scene

"There's no denying that Damon and Elena haven't been on the best of terms over the last few weeks. He put some walls up after she rejected his big "I love you" at the ball, and she's not pleased with some of his decisions -- particularly his keeping company with Rebekah and the thing where he turned her best friend's mom into a vampire.

Some of those boundaries will come down when they take a road trip together in the next new episode, heading to visit Jeremy in Denver. (Haven't these people ever heard of planes?) Expect a very significant Damon/Elena moment -- supported by, as always, a powerful soundtrack.

I can tease one of maybe the Top 5 soundtrack music placements of all time, for the entire show, if not the world and the universe," Plec says. "It's a Florence & The Machine song that's just sensational.

As to what kind of moment the song accompanies, Plec will only say this: "You know, there's a motel. There's some bourbon. There's a little naked shirtlessness, and an epic, epic song moment."

Hell yes this sounds epic i can't wait and my little DE shipper heart is just getting more and more excited each time more news of this episode comes in

Source Zap2it

Julie Plec EW Q&A

During last night's episode of The Vampire Diaries, EW had a very special guest join them in their live chat. Julie Plec, executive producer of the show, very kindly took time out of her busy schedule to join fans in the chat and answered a few of their questions.

Who writes all of Damon's great lines?
It's a group effort. Kevin still has the first place trophy though, in my opinion. He wrote "If I see something I haven't seen before, I'll throw a dollar at it." My fave.

Will we ever see dark Elena?
Depends on how you define dark.

I have been trying to figure out who is more insecure and in need of love S1 Vicki or Rebekah?
Vicki's desire for attention and love was born out of an unstable home environment. Rebekah just got 'stuck' as a stubborn teenage little sister who lost her mom too young.
Will Bonnie ever confront Stefan and Damon about their involvement with turning Abby against her will?
Yes, Bonnie is going to (rightfully) hold a grudge for a while

Will there by any acknowledgement from Stefan or anyone else for all the good Damon has done?

Like in the case when he saved Caroline from Tyler, he often goes unacknowledged for his good deeds. Damon's good deeds are acknowledged in the character's ability to love him deeply in spite of his bad deeds.

I love how you can surprise us every week again with another magical episode. I would like to know where do you get your inspiration from? What are you doing if you have a blockade?

I think about what the most logical move the character's would make and then either have them do it or defy it.

Is there a chance for Stefan and Caroline's friendship to be revisited? I would love for Stefan to have a friend outside of Damon and Elena.
We've just seen the beginning of Stefan and Caroline's friendship, in my opinion. Barely scratched the surface. Can't wait to tell more.

It seems to me that you focus more on Damon and Stefan rather than Elena herself. Are we going to see some strong Elena development later on, outside of her bond with the Salvatore brothers? She's the main protagonist, after all.
The rest of this season is very Elena-centric

What about Stefan and Katherine? Any chance you'll explore more their relationship?
Katherine is on the lam. Maybe we'll see her again one day.

Elena and Stefan obviously still have feelings for each other, will the two of them ever talk about those feeling with each other again?
Yes indeed they will.

Have Stefan and Damon, or even Elijah transferred any emotions or admiration from Tatia or Katherine to Elena?
I think it always begins with some transference and evolves into true feeling

Are we ever going to see Damon's birthday? We've seen both Elena and Stefans.
Maybe one day. Although Damon's like some women - doesn't want to share his age

Does Alaric's crazy murdering alter ego have a name? and is it... Ernesto?

hahahaha. YES

Please can u let the Originals stay alive in S4? They are a part of TVD now and we all would miss them so bad.
I'll never tell!

Should the originals be killed off, as the heroes often have to defeat the villains. Would you ever entertain a spin off?
I would, of course. Ya never know!

Will Damon and Elena discuss how they feel for each other in any of the upcoming episodes?
Yes indeed they will.

Will we see Elijah or Kol or Finn again? PLEASE SAY YES, I REALLY MISS THEM!
Yes you'll see both of them again this season

Will we see more heartfelt scenes between Damon & Stefan this season like we saw in last episode? I really would love to see more of those moments between them!
The brothers will keep growing stronger and stronger

What is your favorite Damon/Elena moment so far?
Him in bed with her in 3x08

Will we ever not see Damon hook up with someone that isn´t Elena.
Every time I answer this I get yelled at, but I think Damon, as a grown man with a lot of sexual energy, can separate sex from intimacy.

Is there a particular character you enjoying writing the most?
Caroline and Alaric/Damon

Delena fans are kind of upset at the moment. The DE scene in this ep, Elena was a little harsh to Damon. Is it sexual frustration?
You always get the most angry at those who you care about

Will Damon's "i love you" confession in 2x08 ever be brought up again?
Maybe one day

Do you see any similarities between Damon and Elena like there are in the books?
Yes, both undeniably consumed by love

Does Matt Davis enjoy playing the darker side of Alaric?
He LOVES it!

Are we ever going to see winter in Mystic Falls? I'd die for Damon/Elena college campus winter scenes!
Oooh that'd be fun. Our special effects guy just told me the other day he could make it snow.

Is there a evil spirit controlling him or is really just crazy and evil now?
We call him Alari-Hyde. Like Jekyll and Hyde

I assume there's something more behind the car accident that killed Elena's parents. Can you maybe give us a hint of what that "something more" might be?
Nope, nothing more

I know you love YA novels. Any plans on writing any when TVD is over?
I would love to

Paul said he wanted another love interest besides Elena, what do you think of that? I'm pretty attached to Stefan/Katherine but I agree he does need to move on/explore other options
What Paul wants and what Paul gets are sometimes different

New interview with Julie Plec on whats to come

On Saturday's red carpet before for the show's PaleyFest event, which was moderated by TV Guide Magazine's Debra Birnbaum, Plec dished on all things Damon-Elena-Stefan, Alaric's future and the Originals' next challenge. Plus: Find out why the upcoming season finale made her cry:

Can we expect reconciliation between Elena and Stefan soon?
Julie Plec: We can expect movement, we can expect breakthroughs, we can expect honest conversations and we can expect some frustration as they continue to try to rediscover if those feelings that were so strong in the beginning still exist. Did they go away and has Stefan ruined it forever? Or does Elena still have a willingness and an ability to love him? In the midst of all that, [we'll] confront the question of what exactly has evolved and transpired in the Damon and Elena friendship that's gotten so far this year. The rest of the season is going to be circling around those questions.

Damon made it very clear that he is much better at being the bad guy than Stefan is. Will he now give up on Elena? Will he turn bad again?
Plec: The beauty of Damon is he never really gives up. He acts out, he takes a stand, he has opinions, but when all is said and done, if brother's in a crisis, if girl's in a crisis, if the world is in a crisis, Damon inevitably can't help himself and he's got to find his way back in. This week's episode really shows that perfect balance of Damon being nasty and sarcastic and angry, and yet really illuminating at his core that he is a very heroic person. It's the constant Damon evolution.

Alaric (Matt Davis) was shot by Meredith (Torrey DeVitto) in the previous episode. What can you tease about his future?
Plec: Alaric, with his tragic and unfortunate luck with the ladies, has just found himself nearly murdered by a human. Had she aimed the gun one inch to the right, he probably would be dead right now. A little spoiler alert, but of the duh variety: We will actually see Alaric again and he'll find himself in this week's episode caught right smack in the center of this murder investigation. We'll start to get a lot of answers about what's going on, and who's behind what and who is going to take the fall for the serial killings that are going down in the town.

Now that it's been revealed there's another white oak tree, how will that change the direction of the rest of the season?
Plec: The discovery that there was another tree planted in absence of the original one that was burnt down, that definitely sets Rebekah (Claire Holt) and Klaus (Joseph Morgan) on edge a little. They just temporarily defeated their mother, who was trying to annihilate them, so they couldn't even enjoy that victory for a short minute before they learned that there's another weapon out there. That being said, right now they're the only ones who know that that weapon is out there. We'll see how long Rebekkah is able to hold onto that secret. The answer is probably not very long. We'll see what Damon does to get a hold of that information and to figure out what she's snooping around about and why.

Abby's transition obviously won't go as smoothly as Caroline's did. How will Caroline (Candice Accola) help Bonnie's mother through this?
Plec: The beauty of Caroline is that a control freak in her human life became a very, very, very well controlled vampire when all those things got magnified. Nobody else is blessed with that kind of obsessive, compulsive, dedication to perfection as Caroline. With Abby (Persia White), what we'll see is that a witch is connected to the Earth, and when you turn a witch into a vampire, she's no longer a witch, so it's losing a part of yourself. It's not just losing your humanity, it's losing what really connected your soul to God, if you want to get religious about it. It's not going to be easy for her or Bonnie (Katerina Graham), because there's no spell she can whip up to help. It's, "How do I help my mother here, who I don't know very well, who left me? We just barely got our relationship going, now how do I help her find her true self in all this tragedy?"

Elena's friends have made it clear that other people end up suffering so that she can be saved. Will that weigh on her heavily when the show returns?
Plec: Yeah, the biggest burden that Elena has to bear, frankly, is that she herself is an incredibly selfless person. She very much wants to take care of and protect the people that she loves, and yet, because ultimately she loves so deeply and so thoroughly, she has created a circle of friends who love that deeply right in return and are, in their own way, selfless and willing to sacrifice themselves for her. It's a little battle of, "Hey, wait a second! I was willing to jump off a cliff." "No, I was!" It all comes down to one of the big central themes in this show, which is loyalty and love and the friendship and bonds of family, and what you're willing to do for the people that are important to you. In a situation like this, with these kids in Mystic Falls where the stakes are high every day, there's a lot of ways that can go. Lately, it seems like it's been going in the disfavor of Elena's friends and she's going to have to deal with that.

Last year's finale had a huge element of danger. Is this one emotionally grounded or will there be more danger?
Plec: It hasn't been put on the page yet, but the finale this year is like a combo platter of the finales from Season 1 and Season 2 in that the mythology and the villain are going to continue to drive us to the end of the season, but emotionally, there's a lot going on in the characters' journeys. Just breaking this story I probably cried four or five times, got a few chills, got very excited, got nervous about how we're going to do it. There's a lot of story to tell and not a lot of time to tell it in. But fingers crossed on what I think is going to be really good.

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

Via TV guide

julie plec dishes to TV guide on upcoming Delena loving

So this is what TV guide found out from Julie Plec:

When The Vampire Diaries returns on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 8/7c on The CW, Elena may finally be ready to say goodbye to Stefan and welcome in Damon's love. "[Elena and Damon] are trying very hard to understand that the Stefan that they know is gone forever and that he betrayed them," executive producer Julie Plec tells TVGuide.com. "Elena understands ... that ultimately it's time for her to move on with her life and not hold onto a ghost of her past."

When the CW series left off, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) believed their plan to defeat Klaus (Joseph Morgan) was foiled because Stefan (Paul Wesley) stepped in and saved him. What they didn't know was that Stefan did so to avoid Klaus' minions from then going after Damon. "One of the big things in the episode back, however, is when Stefan reappears in their lives," Plec says. "At what point do they start to understand the part he played in saving Damon's life and then what does that mean to each of them?"Although Stefan may eventually explain himself to his former love, he has one person on his mind, and it's not Elena. "Stefan is definitely acting from a place of aggressive and not completely rational spite [towards Klaus]," Plec says. "That is going to be a big issue for Elena [and she'll say], 'You could've handled this differently, you can be different, you could feel differently and is winning this war more important than the people you have to hurt along the way?' Right now revenge is definitely his priority." Meanwhile, Klaus will be quite the opponent. "We're going to continue to explore his vulnerabilities while also making him madder and madder and more violent and more evil," Plec says.

With Stefan off focusing on Klaus, Damon and Elena will continue to lean on each other — although Damon, Plec adds, will be back to "acting out, day-drinking, pouting and being generally curmudgeonly." But the romantic tension will build and Elena will have a hard time denying it. "Now that Stefan is out of the picture, in her mind there's a way to free herself up and allow that tension to come out and play," Plec says. "The question of 'Does Elena love Damon [and] has she been fully falling for him all along?' is going to be very much a part of the season."But life in Mystic Falls is never without complication and Elena will have quite a few things on her plate. First, there's the fact that she killed Rebekah, and when the Original sister gets undaggeredshe'll be pissed off, to say the least. Elena will also start to see how she's just as capable of destruction as her vampire peers. "Elena realizes that in order to survive and in order to protect the people she loves the most, sometimes she has to behave more like Katherine than Elena, and sometimes a dark choice needs to be made, a violent act needs to be enacted and it's troubling for her," Plec says. "So who is she really at her core? She's clearly not the girl-next-door do-gooder, she never has been."

Vampire Diaries returns Thursday, Jan. 5 at 8/7c on The CW.

Source TV Guide

Julie plec dishes to Zap2it what to expect when TVD returns in january

So zap2it caught up with Julie plec to find out what is in store for us when TVD returns on January 5th heres the scoop:

"Confession: We weren't too upset about "The Vampire Diaries" going on hiatus for the holiday season. This season has been so fast-paced (read: awesome) that we needed a breather to collect our thoughts!

That relief lasted about five minutes before we started getting antsy for more Mystic Falls. There's still a month left before "TVD" returns to our screens at 8 p.m. on January 5, but our withdrawal symptoms were flaring up, so we thought it was about time to check in with executive producer Julie Plec. Julie gave Zap2it a ring from Atlanta where the cast was hard at work on episode 314.

Looking back on some of the things we've loved about Season 3, Elena's (Nina Dobrev) evolution is high on our list. In the first episode, we found her having spent a summer pining for Stefan (Paul Wesley). As the season soldiered on, however, she finally emerged from her cloud of denial. Finally, she put her foot down and gave Stefan an ultimatum.

"She said to him back in Episode 7 that she can't love a ghost for the rest of her life. She said, 'Get it together or you will lose me.' She threw down," Julie says. "She gave him a chance to let his humanity come through and break through, and he didn't, in her eyes. She has to move forward."

In the mid-season finale, Elena finally decided to let Stefan go -- and yes, she meant it. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) on the other hand is having a little trouble coping with the apparent loss of his little bro. "When we come back from hiatus, Damon is doing what Damon does best when someone pisses him off: He's day-drinking," Julie laughs. "He's seen neither hide nor hair of Stefan since he ruined their plan and got his freedom from Klaus (Joseph Morgan), and Damon and Elena are kind of spiraling a little bit. They don't know where he is or why he betrayed them. All they know is that he has completely screwed them over and they have to move on."

And move on they do, albeit "under a cloak of fear and paranoia," Plec says, because as usual, they're waiting for the other shoe to drop as Klaus seeks his revenge on them for the whole Papa Original debacle.

Terror reigns in Mystic Falls, but that doesn't mean that there's no room for romance amidst the madness.

"When we come back in Episode 10, Elena and Damon are finding themselves in these moments where the romantic tension is a little bit deeper and the physical tension is a little bit hotter," Julie teases. (We know what you're thinking. Hotter? How is that even possible? Trust us... it is.)

Though Stefan is out of the picture, Damon and Elena continue to spend time together. "They have to work together against Klaus, so they keep finding themselves in these moments that they're now both free to act on, without guilt."

Of course, Stefan never stays gone for long. At some point, it will be revealed that his big "betrayal" at Homecoming was for Damon's benefit. "Eventually, somebody is going to found out that Stefan saved Damon's life, and Damon and Elena are going to have that to contend with," Julie says. "They're going to have some choices to make."

Though we're antsy for Damon and Elena to move forward (there are only so many almost-kisses the audience can handle) there's no denying that Stefan's evolution has been one of the most intriguing parts of Season 3.

Julie agrees. "For me, the biggest pleasure of the season -- which I won't say is totally a surprise because theoretically we knew that he had this in him -- is watching Paul Wesley do what he's done. It's been kind of thrilling," she says. "I love me some Paul! I think he's a wonderful actor, and to really see him get to explode on screen has been so exciting and so intense and emotional. I'm really proud of him. I'm proud of the show, in a way, because that storyline really worked the way that we wanted it work."

Now that Stefan is free of Klaus's compulsion, we'll continue to see that bad-ass Ripper we've come to love watching on screen.

And by "love," we also kind of mean "hate," because as magnificent as Paul is in the role, it breaks our heart to see Stefan as icy cold as he's been in the last few episodes. "It's awful! I think what's so great about it is watching him be both completely, horrifically detached, but also those moments where you kind of get the glimpse of something pure under there," Julie says. "They're little moments, and they're so rare and so hidden, so it's very much a testament to him as an actor and to what he's putting into the character, because that's not something that you can necessarily write."

Klaus's reactions to the changes in Stefan drove their relationship in the first half of the season. Now that Stefan has turned on Klaus -- which Klaus wasn't expecting when he freed Stefan -- we're going to see an epic clash.

"We have not seen the worst of Klaus. We also have not seen the worst of Stefan taking on Klaus," Julie tells us. "One of the fun things we're doing when we come back in January is taking the pissing contest -- I guess that's the best term for it -- between Stefan and Klaus to a whole other level. Watching these powerful characters and these powerful actors go head-to-head is going to be awesome."

Stefan isn't used to being the antagonist, and as he seeks rage-fueled revenge on Klaus, he'll discover that Klaus may be even more manipulative than he'd thought. In fact, Klaus sets a plan in motion to turn Mystic Falls itself against Stefan, ripping his home away from him the way that Stefan has hijacked Klaus's family.

"There's a moment where Damon's at a cocktail party and sees Mayor Lockwood chatting with Klaus, and Damon's like 'What the hell are you doing? He's ruined your son's life, he's ruined all of our lives,'" Julie says. "[Mayor Lockwood] says, 'Klaus has offered to leave me, my family, and this town alone if you can get your brother to behave.' So we start to see this manipulation that Klaus has in the town of Mystic Falls, and now that Stefan's pushing back, Klaus is able to step forward and say, 'Hey, I'm not here to cause a problem! Stefan Salvatore is the problem.'"

Source Zap2it

TVD comic con panel vids

Getting ready for TVD panel at Comic Con

So its really exciting as we are all waiting for the TVD panel at Comic Con saturday where hopefully we will get some juicy details from season 3 as well as maybe some clips or a trailer like last year *crosses fingers* I'm also hoping for some cute Nina and Ian moments too. As and when news starts coming in we will be updating the blog as quick as we can to bring you all the coverage so get ready :D

Julie Plec on Season finale & hints on whats to come in season 3

Now that the mind-blowing season finale is behind us (boo!), TVDproducer Julie Plec is finally ready to give us the real scoop on next season and answer some burning finale questions. (Oh, it should go without saying, but there are spoilers ahead!) Thanks to TV Line andEntertainment Weekly for the scoop!

Um, first off: Team Klaus and Stefan? Plec says she knew for “quite a long time” that the two vamps would team up come finale time. We witnessed Damon’s existential crisis all season, and now it’s Stefan’s turn to self-examine. He’s been confronted with “the thing he hates the most about himself” (read: he LOVES blood!). How will he deal? Only time will tell.

Bad Stefan’s back! But how does Paul Wesley (Stefan) feel about it? Plec says it was “probably Paul Wesley’s happiest day on set” when he “was getting to dive back into that [evil] side of Stefan.” And there you have it. Paul loves being the bad boy. And we kinda like watching him.

So, Katherine saved Damon. Is she getting soft on us? Plec explains: “While by no means is she a good girl now — she’s still looking out for No. 1 — she took a detour off her escape route to give him back what she took from him at the beginning of the season.” Remember when the vamp vixen told him, “It’s always been Stefan, I never loved you”? Plec says “she was fixing that wound a little bit” by saving his life. Well, uh, that’s nice?

Katherine’s running again, and Stefan promised to help Klaus hunt her. Knowing that, can we expect some sweet scenes outside of Mystic Falls? “I have no idea. That is a question to be discussed,” Plec says. “...But definitely, she’s got her freedom, which she’s wanted for awhile, and we’ll see how long it lasts.” Tease!

Next up: The Kiss! What does Delena’s romantic moment mean for the future of that love triangle? “In that moment, Damon needed her forgiveness and her love, and she needed to give it to him. It was very pure for her,” Plec dishes. “There’s a lot that happened in that moment, and Season 3 is gonna be about exploring what it means to her, what it means to Damon, and certainly what it means to the Damon-Elena-Stefan relationship.” Why do we have a feeling Katherine will be the one to let that secret spill?

They were a huge part of the second half of the season, so will Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Elijah (Daniel Gilles) become series regulars?“...These two actors are extraordinary, and the story of the Originals is probably longer than the Bible and we can’t wait to dig into it,” Plec says. She continues: “I personally think that the world would be a very sad place if The Vampire Diaries never saw Daniel Gillies as Elijah again.” We’ll take that as a very coy YES.

Here’s a biggie: What the eff is going to happen with Jeremy?Plec spills that his weird supernatural experience in the ep’s final minutes — catching a glimpse of both Anna and Vicki — “is born out of this idea that Bonnie (Kat Graham) went against the laws of nature when she brought Jeremy back to life.” Clearly, the witches are pissed at Bon for going against their wishes. They threatened consequences, and Plec says the return of Vicki and Anna are just “the beginning.” And “whether they’re in his mind or haunting him,” Plec says these particular vamps will “have an enormous impact on Bonnie and Jeremy” if they “stick around.” Ruh roh!

Now, for a little rapid fire round:

Who will take care of Jeremy and Elena now that Jenna’s out of the picture? We’re all gunning for Alaric to step in to play guardian — and Plec says that’s a good possibility.

What else should we know about Klaus and his creepy hybrid-ness? “The rules of the hybrid and all that comes with being the hybrid, we’ve just scratched the surface,” Plec says. Which means: Prepare to be shocked. Again and again.

Speaking of hybrids, where did that ingenious idea come from? “Before we wrote a single page of Season 2,” she says. “...That was always the plan.” Welp, we never see that one coming!

We will see Tyler come fall, right? “Absolutely,” Plec says. Even better? ”... Hopefully, we’ll be able to really dig deeply into Tyler’s friendship and blossoming romantic interest in Caroline.” Score!

And uh, where exactly are Klaus and Stefan headed? To put it bluntly, Plec says: “The direct road to awesomeness.” For some reason, we don’t doubt that. One bit.

Source: Entertainment Weekly, TV Line

Via Wetpaint

Info on "the sun also rises" plus finale talk

"The Vampire Diaries" shocked us all. If you haven't seen it yet because you're waiting to catch up on your DVR or because it has yet to air where you live, this is your spoiler warning! This article contains a lot of spoilers for the April 28 episode "The Last Day."

Damon's shocking, rash decision to feed Elena his blood at the beginning of the episode definitely changed things between him and Elena -- and just when we were starting to see her show him a little affection! As executive producer Julie Plecexplains, Damon did it because he loves Elena -- and because he's so damaged that he doesn't really understand how to handle that

He almost immediately regrets his decision, which shows that while he may not necessarily have mastered impulse control, he's certainly come a long way toward understanding the difference between right and wrong.

"Damon deserves to be loved," Plec says. "Damon deserves a lot of things, but Damon's still got issues. This thing he did to Elena is his biggest lesson to learn, in that you can love someone, with all the power in your soul, but you still have to remember who they are and what they want. we talked about it like turning off the life support on a coma patient, a loved one. What were their instructions? In brain death, do you keep them on life support because you can't say goodbye or do you give them their wish?"

Some viewers have felt that Stefan wasn't being proactive enough in saving Elena from Klaus, but his willingness to let Elena make decisions illustrates the key difference between the two characters.

"That's the difference right now between Stefan and Damon in that Stefan sees that in love, you have to take the other person's wishes into consideration. And Damon, because he's been so screwed in the head by love, and it's his Achilles heel, this episode was about him learning that lesson."

The twist gave us a chance to learn Elena's true feelings about becoming a vampire. When we spoke with Nina Dobrev during the filming of this episode, she explained Elena's feelings. "She's 17 years old. She loves Stefan so, so much, but she's kind of figuring out that there's always the Damon thing, there's always the age difference, and the fact that she hasn't lived her life yet. [Stefan has] had a lot of time to figure out his life and experience things and decide that he loves her."

Plec echoes that sentiment. "When we started this show the similarities with 'Twilight' were so extreme. This was our way of closing the book on that chapter of the similarities, because for Elena to say, 'I've never even wanted this for a minute. I'm still a kid and I still have choices to make in my life, choices that I wanted to make' -- I love that about Elena and I think that's so beautiful. We're happy to be able to let her have that introspection, when the choice has already been made for her."

The finale is about Damon's search for forgiveness. Now that he's been bitten by Tyler and he's facing his own mortality for the first time in a century and a half, he has one dying wish.

"I can't die with you hating me," Plec says. "That's his point."

Next week's episode, "The Sun Also Rises," will feature the sacrifice ritual. It's a high-action episode that easily could've served as the Season 2 finale, but Plec says that they needed another episode for Damon's emotional payoff.

"Next week's episode is enormous and emotional and that could've been it, that could've been the end of the season. But when we started the season, Stefan said to Damon, 'For the first time I see you starting to feel something, and starting to care. Do not let this ruin you. Do not let Katherine ruin you. Do not let any of this come between us. Do not take a step backward,'" she explains. "Here we are, we've come full circle, and he's made so many choices, and screwed up, and now he's at the end of his life, so he believes. He needs to come to terms with all the decisions that he's made in the year - and not just in the year, but since Katherine seduced him 145 years ago."

Stefan's journey in the finale is also one of redemption. He still feels the guilt of being a catalyst for Damon turning 145 years ago, as we saw in this episode when he shouted at Damon, "How could you, of all people, take that choice away from her?" He still remembers the fact that he took the choice from his brother so many years ago.

Now, as Damon revisits the past and seeks Elena's forgiveness, Stefan will try to do the impossible. "Stefan is determined to do anything possible to save his brother," Plec says. "Stefan's cross to bear is 'Wait a second, my brother's finally showing his humanity, that I took away from him 145 years ago -- I can't let him die now.' But there's no cure. So what the hell's he going to do? That's the finale."

Via Zap2it

Julie plec reveals when Klaus will arrive and a return of Trevor

Julie Plec has revealed that Trevor will be returning on The Vampire Diaries.
The executive producer on the CW series spoke to Show Trackerabout the second season's remaining episodes, stating that Trevor, played by Trent Ford, will be making another appearance in the show despite being beheaded by Elijah earlier in the run.
"We will be seeing Trevor again this year," said Plec, who declared that the vampire would be returning in an upcoming flashback episode.
Plec went on to reveal when the villain Klaus would appear, saying that she is thrilled by the casting of British actor Joseph Morgan.
"It's episode 19, which is the first time we meet Klaus," said Plec. "We're also going back into the past.
"You always need your villains to have multiple layers and to be able to kill you with kindness as much as they can kill you with violence. I think Joseph really represents that."
Show star Ian Somerhalder, who plays the vampire Damon Salvatore, has previously stated that he too is excited for Klaus to make an appearance. "I think everyone's on their toes now more. Because he's a badass," he said.

The Vampire Diaries returns on April 7 at 8pm on The CW

Via Digital spy

Julie plec talks to TV guide about upcoming episode

"Evil is coming to Mystic Falls! Exec producer Julie Plec confirms to TV Guide Magazine that before the end of The Vampire Diaries' second season, viewers will get to meet Klaus — one of the original vampires. "We do not know anything about him other than that he's to be reckoned with and that no one's going to be safe when he gets to town," says Plec. "How he gets to town, when he gets to town, what he looks like when he gets to town — that's all part of the mystery."

But Plec isn't just being cagey. She tells us the character of Klaus keeps changing as the audition process progresses. "It's exciting to see a lot of new faces and try to figure out who we want that character to be and what kind of attitude we want him to have, what kind of charm we want him to have," she says. "That character is evolving even as we cast because we see a lot of things that we like and we think, 'Ooh, that's interesting. What an interesting take on the character.'"

While Plec and Kevin Williamson hunt for the perfect vampire, the January 27 episode promises to answer questions about the supernatural beings already shacking up in the small town. Last we saw, Bonnie (Katerina Graham) trusted new boy-witch Luka (Bryton James) in her quest to break the spell that causes a werewolf bite to kill vampires, but with the spell still firmly in place, is the legend true?

"There is a devolution of Rose's sanity and Rose's character, as a result of the bite, which brings a lot of danger into Elena's (Nina Dobrev) world and into everybody else's world," says Plec. "The follow up from that is going to be pretty extreme." And then there's werewolf Jules (Michaela McManus). "She knows now that Mason's dead, and she's going to have something to say about that. What she chooses to do and how she chooses to respond is big and it's bold, and it takes us for the next couple episodes on a journey that's pretty intense."

And, finally, there's some good news for Team Damon. "Elena and Stefan (Paul Wesley) are happily back together, but as a result of what Rose is going through, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena find themselves sort of thrown together, trying to deal with this invalid vampire," says Plec. "They go through a pretty rough emotional experience together which, of course, cements their relationship even further."

Via TV Guide

Update on casting for "Klaus" - julie plec talks to EW

'Vampire Diaries' scoop: A couple hundred actors have read for Klaus

by Mandi Bierly

Klaus — the oldest, most vindictive, and so far unseen vampire who’ll want to sacrifice Elena to break the curse that keeps most vampires from walking in the sun (and thereby seal the fates of werewolves to forever change on the full moon whether they want to or not). It’s a killer part that the exec producers aren’t taking the casting of lightly, even if Kevin Williamson did joke with EW earlier this month about wanting to just dye Ian Somerhalder’s hair blond. EP Julie Plec estimates a couple hundred actors have now read for the role. “We’ve been getting great tapes out of England and Australia. That’s what excites me: This idea that there might be somebody out there that no one’s really familiar with yet that can be a new fresh face that we can exploit…in all the good ways,” Plec says. “I think our show works so well because we don’t really stunt cast. That being said, if there’s some big hot TV star that’s available that we love, then… As I always joke, I have my Joshua Jackson fantasy — Pacey in Mystic Falls.”

Fans have been more than happy to offer their picks online. “We like the people on Twitter who are like ‘Alexander Skarsgard has to be Klaus!’ I’m like really? ‘Cause that’s original,” Plec says, laughing. They’re willing to think outside the box. “The big important elements of this character are charisma and gravitas. You’ve got to be able to be afraid of this guy, whether you’re afraid of him because he looks scary or because he’s so charming that the fact that he can snap your neck with his pinky would take you by surprise. So whether he’s an Old Word-flavored guy or new hip, contemporary, speedy kinda guy, that remains to be seen. We’ll see what actor we connect to the most.” The character will make his appearance by season’s end, Plec says.

The suggestions line is open: Who would you cast? Having seen Gale Harold’s name pitched elsewhere, we voiced our approval to Plec, and she said he’s a little older than what they’re envisioning. So you have that to go on. The idea of casting a relative unknown is intriguing: Daniel Gillies (pictured, with Nina Dobrev), who recurs as Elijah, another of the ancient vampires known as The Originals, is doing a great job of keeping viewers guessing. If age and star status weren’t an issue, we’d love to see what Idris Elba could do with the character. He’s mentioned that he’d be into reviving Wesley Snipes’ Blade, he’s still open to TV (The Office, The Big C, Luther), and most importantly, he genuinely seems to enjoy shaking things up. “I get criticized for taking roles in films like Ghost Rider 2, but if you look at my résumé, dude, I’ve mixed it up as much as I can,” he told us recently. “I love to play different roles. That’s just the kind of actor I am.”

Follow Mandi on Twitter: @EWMandiBierly

Via Entertainment Weekly