‘The Vampire Diaries’ Star Paul Wesley Talks Lily Salvatore, an Elena-less Series and More

The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley will miss having Nina Dobrev on the show as much as the rest of us, but he also sees her departure as a chance to take the series in an entirely new direction.

Paul, Nina and Ian Somerhalder made up the TVD trifecta for the show’s first 6 seasons, but now, with season 7 right around the corner, the fellas are preparing to usher in a new Elena-less era, which Paul doesn’t necessarily feel is a bad thing. “It’s a different sort of theme. Obviously Elena’s gone, so there’s going to be a natural shift…The original triangle, Damon, Stefan, Elena, is what made the show such a big hit and brought the fans, but Nina wanted to leave and…the show needs a fresh spin. It was almost like a fortuitous opportunity to create something new. We might completely botch it but we’ll do our best not to,” shared the star.

It’s no secret that the new season’s big bads are Lily Salvatore and her band of blood-sucking, destruction causing Heretics, but we’ll get to see Mama Salvatore hurt our favorite brothers in a more… emotional way. “I think there’s definitely a sense of abandonment and hurt,” said Paul of the Salvatore brothers’ feelings towards Lily. “They’re wary of her, but then they’re also like…it’s that natural, internal- you naturally want to forgive your mom and just assume that she’s a great person and that she really did love you. That’s a natural thing, so I think Stefan’s going to be prone to forgiveness and naiveté as opposed to Damon who’s cynical and suspicious and wary of her.

Watch the rest of Paul’s interview to find out what word the show taught him, who stands to drive the brothers apart and more in the full Comic-Con interview below:

The Vampire Diaries returns to The CW on Thursday October 8th.

Photo Credit: FanBolt/Emma Loggins