‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 5 poster: Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhlader, and see-through clothing

“The Vampire Diaries” is certainly not wasting any time at all showing that they are more “adult” side of the cast thanks to Elena being in college. The poster that we have to share with you right now is certainly the steamiest thing that The CW has put out and we’ve found that the reactions to it online so far have been everything from impressed to appalled.

To us, the coolest thing about this image is simply that it shows a darker side to some of the characters, it’s pretty well-done, and it includes everyone in the core cast. We really appreciate the inclusion of Katherine this year (not to mention Michael Trevino still sticking around as Tyler), and it’s also interesting that the person in the center of everything right now is none other than Matt. This definitely goes along with the evidence out there that this character is going to have a much more substantial role in the season.

But, the negative comes just in how out of character some of this feels. This is a very racy outfit for the Elena character to be wearing all of a sudden, though we understand that the red is meant to make her stand out here in the midst of all of the other characters. Meanwhile, Ian Somerhalder’s shirt, while pleasing to some women and men out there, makes him look like he is on the way to a rave in the “True Blood” club Fangtasia. Shirtless Matt is a little more in line with what we have seen, though we suppose that we are over thinking much of this given that these posters are meant to be out-of-context and are not actually canon to anything important related to the show.

What’s your take on this poster? You can see more steamy scenes from this season by clicking the link here, and we’ll have more soon leading up to the October 3 premiere.

Photo: The CW