You knew they couldn't hide in their coffins forever. With the season four premiere of "Vampire Diaries" on October 11, new casting and plot details are dripping out almost daily like so many pints of freshly tapped blood.

Executive producer Julie Plec recently told TVLine, "This year, Damon is the Damon of Season 1, minus the posturing and posing. ... He is who he is. He's got attitude. He's always right. He's rarely wrong. He might do the wrong thing, but he's always the one who's like, 'I told you guys. You should have listened to me.' So this year is going to be very much about, 'You don't like me. You want to judge me. You don't like who I am, how I do things? Well, screw you.' It's going to be a great shift for him... He's still going to be the Damon we know and love - he's still going to be kicking ass and taking names. But he just has this devil may care attitude about it. He's just not going to change for anybody anymore. He did that. That's over."

Damon's been through a lot lately. Before he even knew about Elena becoming a vampire, he lost his drinking buddy in Alaric, and found out Elena chose Stefan. However, everything's going to be changing now that Elena's transitioning, which should also lead to some more conflict between the brothers.

David Alpay, best known for his work on "The Borgias" and "The Tudors," is set to play a college professor who has a particular interest in the supernatural. Professor Shane will share a particular connection with Bonnie when he first arrives in the fourth episode. TVGuide reveals that he knows her through her family, so we're hoping his introduction will open us up to a little more of Bonnie's background and family history.

No word yet on whether he'll be a love interest for any of the characters.

In Season 2, when Damon, Alaric, and Elena visited Isobel's offices at Duke University, we learned that Isobel had been doing some serious research on vampires as part of her studies. Let's just say that Shane has a lot in common with Elena's departed bio-mom.

Alpay will recur this season. His storyline will introduce us to the local university, which will help ease the show's transition into the post-high-school world after most of our favorites graduate in the spring.

In other "Vampire Diaries" news, Alaric, or Matthew Davis has been dating "Alphas" actress Azita Ghanizada for the past four months, after first dating her nearly eight years ago. She just wrapped production of "Alphas" in Toronto and has supposedly been visiting Davis in Vancouver. Since Davis exiting the show, he has a new CW program of his own coming out called "Cult."

What do you want to see happen in season 4? Let us know in the comments.