Fans are still reeling from the season 5 finale of The Vampire Diaries, and episode director Chris Grismer recently spilled some behind-the-scenes tidbits while creator Julie Plec has been dishing out spoilers for the upcoming season.

The Vampire Diaries Season 5 Finale

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Grismer revealed how he shot the final scene of the episode, when Bonnie and Damon are standing hand in hand, watching helplessly as The Other Side collapses in front of them. The episode ends with The Other Side crumbling and the screen fading to white.

To create the unforgettable scene, Grismer revealed that there were minimal special effects involved during the shooting, and dished that the actors Kat Graham and Ian Somerhalder couldn’t hear each other during the filming, so their lines had to be recorded separately.

“We just sort of over-exposed it, just old-school, and used smoke, and then I just had them grab the cameras and shake them. The weird thing about it was the actors couldn’t hear each other because we had fans going and it was just pure chaos. So they kinda had to guess when it was their turn to talk, and then we dubbed their voices afterward,” Grismer said.

In the interview, Grismer also talked about the emotional goodbye scene between Damon (Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev). In the scene, Damon appears as a ghost, so in an effort to keep it as real as possible, Grismer had Dobrev do a majority of her acting alone, with Somerhalder off screen and out of sight.

“Ian got to look at her, but she had to do the majority of her acting without him there… She did a great job,” Grismer said.

Bonnie And Damon Will Return In Season 6

Series co-creator Julie Plec has refused to specify what exactly happened to the characters of Bonnie and Damon. However, she did reveal that actors Graham and Somerhalder would return next season, though for how many episodes and in what capacity (flashback, dream sequence, etc.), she would not say.

“We will definitely see Ian Somerhalder and Kat Graham on the show. I mean, there’s a million different ways that you can do that. But as far as in what context – how, why, and where? – that’s part of the mystery,” Plec teased fans.

The actors are reportedly under contract for six seasons, which means they could very well return full-time in the coming season. However, Plec revealed that The Vampire Diaries would be picking up in season six after a relatively large time jump and that Damon and Bonnie would still be, for all intents and purposes, dead, or absent from the world of the living.

“We’re going to come back in a whole new environment. A good amount of time would have passed. Our characters fundamentally will have had to come to terms with the fact that Damon and Bonnie are gone forever,” Plec told The Hollywood Reporter.

There’s Hope For Stefan And Caroline

Fans hoping that Stefan and Caroline might begin a romance should be ready for disappointment, as Plec teased that Damon’s death is “a character-defining journey for [Stefan].” If the shock of Damon’s death pushes Stefan back into his Ripper mode, then Steroline fans will most likely be waiting quite a long time for their OTP to become a reality. However, Plec assured fans that there is hope, as Caroline is now more in touch with her romantic feelings for Stefan.

“The one thing we know pretty clearly is that Caroline, in her heart of hearts, is starting to accept she has feelings for Stefan…. I think she’s finally admitting it to herself, losing him woke that up in her, the question is will Stefan reciprocate those feelings? That’s what we’ll have to explore in Season 6 and see where we go,” Plec revealed.

Did Ian Somerhalder Request To Leave The Show?

Though no announcements have been made one way or the other on whether Kat Graham and Ian Somerhalder are leaving the teen drama, one website claims that Somerhalder requested to leave the show due to his off-screen breakup with Dobrev, whom he dated for about three years.

“Although the two tried to remain professional throughout all the awkwardness, sources close to the show’s production claim that they were never fully comfortable with each other after their split…when Ian requested that his character be killed off early, they didn’t hesitate to jump ship,” reads the article.

Matt Davis Returns As TVD Series Regular

While Somerhalder’s fate on The Vampire Diaries is still in limbo, the season 5 finale also saw the permanent return of a familiar face: Alaric Saltzman, played by Matt Davis. Davis, who was a series regular in it’s second and third seasons, Davis has officially been announced as a series regular for Season 6, which means Alaric fans will be able to see him navigate life as a vampire. Another newly added series regular: Michael Malarkey, who plays Enzo, will be back in full Traveler capacity in season 6.

Alaric may have come back from the dead as a vampire, but Plec confirms that Tyler (Michael Trevino) has returned to life as a human with a werewolf gene – meaning he would need to kill somebody to trigger the curse and become a werewolf again.

“So he [Tyler] is back to being a boy with a werewolf gene. And so it puts him in a really interesting predicament next year because it’s almost like a do-over in a good way, but also a scary way,” Plec confirmed.

TVD Season 6 Will Go Back To The Beginning

Finally, Plec has stated that she hopes next season will be a sort of rebirth for the show, moving away from the supernatural shockers to more character-based arcs – similar to the first two seasons.

“We’re trying to take the show away from the massive genre extravaganza where each season we try to top each other with the bigger, bad, more exciting mythologies and boil it back down to the beginning, which is tension, suspense, romance, psychological horror, simple horror, vampires living in secret, people discovering their secret and coming after them,” Plec pledged.

A big theme going into next season will be home:

“Exploring that new reality – the magic bubble, so to speak, that sits over Mystic Falls still exists, so they literally cannot go home again. That’s a big theme of the early part of the season: How can we bring our heroes and our friends back together, and how can they find their way back home, literally and figuratively? That includes the Damon and Bonnie mystery as well,” Plec added.

More on The Vampire Diaries:

> ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Season 5 Finale Recap: Alaric And Stefan Make It Back From The Other Side, Leaving Loved Ones Behind

> CW Shakeup: Network Cuts ‘Carrie Diaries,’ Renews ‘Hart Of Dixie’

> ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Recap: Markos Puts His Spell In Motion, A Doppelganger Is Killed

> ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Recap: Enzo Leads The Travelers Straight To Elena And Stefan

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Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.

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