While we're still coming to terms with what "The Vampire Diaries" will look like sans its fearless heroine Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), Ian Somerhalder couldn't be more excited to explore Damon's life without his OTL.

"We’re actually very excited about telling this story," Somerhalder told "Extra" today (July 9). "Mystic Falls without Elena Gilbert is going to be very different. We want to go back to that season 1 and season 2 of storytelling."

"I think that the last scene in the last episode that you see is truly a depiction of what this next season’s going to be," he added.

In case you need a refresher on that final scene, we saw Damon standing atop the Mystic Falls clock tower (a la Bruce Wayne, TBH) seemingly protecting Mystic Falls from harm. And our beloved sleepy town didn't look so sleepy anymore, as Matt patrolled the town square in his police car. So what new evil has overrun Mystic Falls?

Obviously, Mystic Falls has descended into chaos without Elena -- and Damon, well, he's either the town's protector or its antagonist.

We think it's interesting that Somerhalder says this season will feel very much like the earlier seasons because in those earlier seasons, Damon was somewhat of an antagonist. Could he be hinting towards a possible downward spiral? Without Elena there to keep him on the straight and narrow, has Damon fallen back into his old, destructive ways? And will Stefan (Paul Wesley) be responsible for cleaning up after his brother's messes again?

It looks like we'll have to wait until the season 7 premiere on October 8 to find out officially, but "TVD" fans can look forward to getting some scoop this Sunday, July 12 when our favorite vamps storm San Diego Comic-Con.