THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS, DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!!

You can keep your collegiate football games and freshman mixers: The Vampire Diaries‘ Damon has been there, done that… and probably sucked the life’s blood out of a few co-eds along the way.

So when the CW drama returns this fall, executive producer Caroline Dries promises, it won’t be TVD: The College Years. Fans can rest assured that the university-set adventures of Elena and Caroline (and Bonnie, maybe?) will be balanced out by Mystic Falls-centric stories featuring Damon and Silas Stefan.

In other words, it’s a new season; not a new show.

Dries and cast members Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Candice Accola and Kat Graham stopped by TVLine’s suite at Comic-Con to dish some scoop on the upcoming fifth season. Press PLAY on the video below to see Graham’s take on her character’s netherworld experience (and how the phrase “in spirit” sends her into a fit of giggles), how “sweet” we can expect Damon to be in the forthcoming episodes and how maybe an absent Klaus wasn’t so bad after all.

via tvline