It's official! Damon, Stefan and the rest of gang in Mystic Falls will return on Oct. 8. The new season is said to cook up a scorching hot Salvatore family affair, with the vampire brothers set to battle their mom Lily and her deadly friends she reunited with in the season 6 finale.

Nina Dobrev's exit doesn't mean that "The Vampire Diaries" has run out of juicy bits. In fact, executive producer Kevin Williamson is confident that "there is a lot of story to tell. A lot of great, emotional, tear jerking, epic, scary and thrilling story to tell."

One of which is the long rumored romance that could brew between Damon and Bonnie, something showrunner Caroline Dries isn't ready for writers to tackle. Then there's Stefan stepping up to be a hero, not to mention his love affair with Caroline, which will be challenged by Lily's threats.

In the season 6 finale, not much of Steroline was built up. In fact, with Caroline still shaken by the repercussions of her mother's death, which ultimately led her to forget about her humanity, she wasn't ready for romance. But that may change in "The Vampire Diaries" season 7.

"We always thought it was more natural for Caroline to deal with the grief she's feeling and not think that her relationship with Stefan is just a Band-Aid to cover up these tragic feelings she's been enduring," Dries explained to TV Line." "She wants to come at it from a cleaner place," she added.

In the recent ATX Television Festival, co-executive producer Julie Plec revealed that "The Vampire Diaries" season 7 will have more of Caroline.

"At the end of the pilot, she says, 'Why doesn't anybody ever pick me?'" Plec was quoted as saying. "You realize, here's a girl who's trying so hard to matter and she's over trying, she's overcompensating. What you've done in a TV series is you've set up a girl, that by the end of her run as a character, she will be the one that gets picked first," she went on to say.

"The Vampire Diaries" season 7 premieres Oct. 8.