It was business as usual when the cast and creators of The CW’s Vampire Diaries took the stage at Comic-Con Saturday afternoon: lots of hootin’ and hollerin’ from the crowd, lots of “Stelena” and “Delena” chatter and lots of scoop on Season 4.

Read on for highlights from the panel discussion, which included an update on the newly vampified Elena, talk of MIA Katherine and Alaric and much more.

FRESH FOOTAGE | Production on Season 4 has only just begun, but fans were treated to a (very) brief glimpse at the upcoming run. In one scene, Damon is slamming Matt up against a wall (probably mad that he was saved in the car crash), while in another, the bad(der) Salvatore brother tells Stefan: “Now the world has one more quarterback. Bravo, brother.”

SEASON 4 SCOOP | “Everything just feels so fresh; it feels new,” showrunner Julie Plec told the crowd. “It feels familiar in all the right ways, and it feels different, too. It’s a lot of deep, emotional and twisted stuff.” Season 4 will also delve further into the Wicca backstory –namely, who taught Original witch Esther everything she knows.

VAMPY WOMAN | “Elena was a badass girl, and now she’s a badass vampire girl and can take care of herself,” Ian Somerhalder discussed. “It’s going to add a really interesting dynamic between [Stefan, Damon and Elena]… and I think they’ll learn a lot together in a really short amount of time.” As for playing the newly turned Elena, Nina Dobrev mused, “How do you make Elena, the vampire, different from her [human] self? It’s going to be difficult, and I think it’s going to [depend on] her experiences… Everything’s going to be heightened and she’s constantly going to be struggling with what she is.”

BACK TO BASICS | Gone are the days of Damon trying to be a better man. “At this point, he’s tried,” Somerhalder shrugged. “He tried to be someone people wanted him to be, but bottom line is, he’s not.” Essentially, the actor shared, Damon will be saying, “I did everything you wanted me to do, and it didn’t work… And if you don’t like it, you can go bleep yourself.”

SOMETHING ABOUT A WOMAN IN UNIFORM…. | Zach Roerig pitched a new romantic interest for his poor lovelorn Matt. “I think that Sheriff Forbes might be a great companion,” he joked.

KATHERINE THE GRRRREAT | Plec shared that beloved baddie Katherine “will not show her little face until Klaus is no longer a threat.” As for when that might happen… we’ll have to wait and see.

FAMILIAR FACES | Although Matt Davis isn’t currently slated to return to TVD  as the late Alaric (he headlines The CW’s midseason drama Cult), “He definitely, contractually, has permission to appear,” Plec assured. “We certainly don’t like living in a world without Matt Davis in our family. It’s possible [he'll return], and something we would all like to see. ” Additionally, Torrey DeVitto’s Meredith will be back.

Källa