CW has confirmed that Season 7 of the hugely popular show 'The Vampire Diaries' will premiere this fall.

This early we can confirm that Annie Wersching will play a key role in the next season of The Vampire Diaries as Lily Salvatore. TV Fanatics said Lily would be involved with a "major" storyline in the supernatural and fantasy drama television series.

Lily's character was introduced at the end of Season 6 of The Vampire Diaries. Long believed to be dead by her two sons, Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), Lily appeared as a reformed Ripper who was trapped in the 1903 Prison World.

In the wake of Elena Gilbert's goodbye in Mystic Falls, season seven begins with some characters will recover while others falter. As Lily tries to drive a wedge between the Salvatore brothers, fans want to still hold onto hope that Stefan and Caroline's love story is strong enough to survive.

In the Season 6 finale of The Vampire Diaries, the story seemed to have jumped into the future a few years. The show seems to have taken a sci-fi like turn, with a dystopian Mystic Falls.

"The time jump is part of the narrative and story of episode 1," show producer Caroline Dries was quoted by TV Fanatics from an interview with EW. "Why are there boarded-up windows? Why is there garbage everywhere? What the heck happened? Why is Damon standing on that clock tower looking so pissed off?"

Dries did not provide details how far into the future will the story will jump but said the answer to the question would be revealed in the season premiere. She added, "The conflict of season seven will become the Salvatore brothers vs. their mom and her family of heretics.  It's going to be two warring factions pitted against each other."

Julie Plec, the main writer in The Vampire Diaries added, "We're trying to take the show away from the massive genre extravaganza where each season we try to top each other with the bigger, bad, more exciting mythologies and boil it back down to the beginning, which is tension, suspense, romance, psychological horror, simple horror, vampires living in secret, people discovering their secret and coming after them," Plec promises. "Our heroes who have splintered off need to find their way back to each other emotionally and geographically as they fight to restore order to their home so they can actually return and not be scattered for good."

For his part, Somerhalder said that his character, Damon, would not be the same sweet boyfriend that he was and told fans to expect a reversion to The Vampire Diaries' Seasons 1 and 2. Damon,

"The story is just going to change form and I think that we get to go back to this really awesome dark, edgy, volatile [theme]... The last two shots of this [finale] truly depict where this show is going to be and we see characters moving into spaces and places we never thought they'd be," he said.

The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural and fantasy drama television series that is currently airing on The CW network in the United States. The series was developed by Kevin Williamson (Stalker, The Following, Dawson's Creek) and Julie Plec (The Originals, The Tomorrow People, Kyle XY) based on the popular eponymous book series by L. J. Smith. Williamson and Plec also serve as executive producers for the series alongside Pascal Verschooris (Flash Gordon), Leslie Morgenstein (Significant Mother, Gossip Girl), Caroline Dries (Melrose Place), Bob Levy (Gossip Girl , The Talent Show) and Gina Girolamo (The 100, 666 Park Avenue). Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries premiered on The CW in the US on September 10, 2009.

The storyline of The Vampire Diaries is set in Mystic Falls, Virginia, a small town haunted and surrounded by supernatural beings. The story mainly revolves around Elena Gilbert (played by Nina Dobrev; The Final Girls, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) who falls for vampire Stefan Salvatore (played by Paul Wesley; Before I Disappear, 24, Army Wives) and as a consequence is drawn into the supernatural world. As the storyline develops, Elena falls for Stefan's brother Damon Salvatore (played by Ian Somerhalder; How to Make Love to a Woman, Lost) and we get a love triangle. There is also the mysterious past of the town that involves Elena's evil-minded doppelgänger Katerina Petrova.