Awesome scoop on Season 4 of The Vampire Diaries from TV Overmind from Comic Con Yesterday.

The Vampire Diaries’cast stopped by the press room at Comic-Con to dish on Elena’s transformation, inter-personal relationships and a trip to the dark side in season 4.  We chatted with executive producers Julie Plec and stars Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, Michael Trevino, Steven R. McQueen and Zach Roerig about next season.

Elena’s Transformation.  Plec explained that they wanted Elena’s transformation into a vampire to be earned, which is why it didn’t happen earlier in the series.  There was simply too much character development that needed to take place before she went on this particular journey.  The season 4 premiere  of The Vampire Diaries (which picks up a few hours after the events of the season 3 finale) will see the group exhausting every possible opportunity to save Elena from becoming a vampire.  The outcome of that quest will set the stage going forward.    Meanwhile, Dobrev likened the transformation into a vampire to puberty.  Because emotions are heightened, Elena will experience a lot of emotional swings, from extreme sadness to extreme happiness.

The Salvatores and Elena.  “The best thing about those brothers is that they love her very deeply.  In spite of moves made or arguments they’ve had over the years about her being a vampire, they both know that’s the one thing she never wanted.  If anyone deserves a human life – or to grow up and have babies as she said in season 2 – it’s [Elena].  In a weird way, she’s going to be more pragmatic about it than then are.  They’re both going to be very set on ‘how can we save her from herself?’  They’re not going to be on the same page at all in the beginning,” Plec warned.  She lamented the fact that the brothers were recently on a journey to reconnect, but “now we’re going to see that tested a little bit.”  Wesley said that, as a viewer, he feels conflicted watching Elena’s death scene.  “We find out later that Stefan never meant for [Elena] to die.  He wasn’t making the decision to let her die.  He was making the decision to save Matt first and come back to get her, for whatever reason.  She chose Stefan, but now he has this against him, in a way.  So it’s sort of a catalyst for her to go to Damon.”  Damon will be angry with Stefan, insisting that he would have saved Elena instead of letting her make a choice that led to her death. Continue Reading