‘Vampire Diaries’ Season 7 Spoilers: When Will The New Episodes Start? EP Julie Plec Teases Timeline Twist

“The Vampire Diaries” might not pick up exactly where it left off. Executive producer Julie Plec revealed the Season 7 premiere will start off around where the show ended in the finale, but it will also show the future and the past.

“We’re actually picking up all over the place,” Plec told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re picking up a little bit in the future, we’re picking up a lot in the future, we’re doing a little bit of a time shuffle as we launch into the season. One timeline is set very much in the future and the other timeline will catch us up to the events of the final scene of last season.”

In the “Vampire Diaries” Season 6 finale, the last few minutes of the show flashed forward to after Elena had been cursed for a while. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) watched Matt (Zach Roerig) drive a police cruiser around a run-down Mystic Falls. It looks like fans will get a glimpse of what happened leading up to that moment, but they’ll also look into the future, where another mystery will take place with Damon and Stefan (Paul Wesley).

“I know that someone is after Damon and Stefan,” Wesley told PopSugar of the flashbacks. “And there's imminent danger and threat. They're running from this thing, but I don't know what it is. It's ambiguous, but obviously on purpose.”

It’ll be hard to worry about the future when Damon and Stefan are concerned with present day problems in “The Vampire Diaries” Season 7. Their mother Lily (Annie Wersching) will be taking over Mystic Falls with the Heretics. “They have to sit and watch as she and these kids take over their hometown, move into their house and really live their lives in plain sight of these heroes,” Plec told Seat42f in July. “And then it puts them in a situation of, are they going to make amends with this woman or are they going to take her down?”

“The Vampire Diaries” Season 7 premieres Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. EDT on the CW. Are you excited for the timeline changes or would you rather the show focus on the present day? Sound off in the comments section below!