What a tease! Ian Somerhalder dares to bare it all in a new Vampire Diaries teaser that he posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
The short Season 7 clip features a shot of the CW hunk shirtless with a towel around his waist, which he quickly doffs and tosses at his pal Alaric (Matthew Davis), who’s sitting on a couch, leaving Somerhalder’s sexy vamp Damon fully exposed.
“Why is Damon naked in this new Vampire Diaries Trailer…?” the 36-year-old actor playfully captions the post.
In addition to some naked time with Damon, the teaser also promises a few other steamy moments, including a lip lock between Caroline (Candice Accola) and Stefan (Paul Wesley), some girl-talk between besties Caroline and Bonnie (Kat Graham), and even a shot of Damon waking up in a coffin.
The upcoming season will be the first one without star Nina Dobrev, who has played Elena Gilbert since the supernatural drama premiered in 2009. At San Diego’s Comic-Con this past July, the cast and producers did their first panel without Dobrev.
“Of course it’s bittersweet [to be here without Nina],” creator Julie Plec said at the time. Elena is not technically dead, however — the character is essentially asleep in a coffin for the next 60 to 70 years until BFF Bonnie, to whom she is supernaturally linked, eventually dies. Hence, her spirit lives on.
“I thought it was a really clever way to keep Elena there and keep her presence there and keep the door open in a lot of ways for her to come back,” Graham said on the panel. “But it also created an interesting dynamic going into Season 7 for Bonnie and Damon and them to have to deal with the fact that Bonnie’s alive and Elena’s not.”
Season 7 of The Vampire Diaries will premiere on Oct. 8 on The CW.
