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Dead serious

WHAT IS HER FATE? Nina Dobrev stars as Elena. The season left off with Elena dying with vampire blood in her system. (CW Network)

Fans of “The Vampire Diaries” know that their heroine, Elena, faces a life-altering — or is that un-dead? — decision on tonight’s season premiere (8 p.m./Ch. 11).

But they’re in for some big surprises down the road.

Last season’s cliffhanger finale left Elena (Nina Dobrev) faced with a supernatural conundrum after a horrific car crash.

“We ended the season with Elena dying with vampire blood in her system,” says series co-executive producer Caroline Dries. “And in the rules of our show, when you wake up, you’re half dead and half alive and have around a day to decide whether to feed on human blood and become a vampire or say, no, that’s not the life I want — and die.

“Elena has made it very clear she does not want to be a vampire — she thinks it’s the worst thing that could happen to her,” Dries says.

“She’s facing a supernatural existential crisis, and as she’s deciding [on that] all hell breaks loose and the town council that’s in charge of monitoring supernatural activities makes a huge move on the town and kidnaps some of our heroes.

“That makes Elena’s choice a luxury . . . with all her friends having to save her from making this choice.

“It’s all about, ‘Will she or won’t she?’ ”

Well, we’ve got a long way to go this season, so it’s a good bet that Elena will bite the hand (or other body part) that feeds her life — even if it’s that kind of life.

“It will be decided on tonight’s episode and the rest of the season will follow from that decision,” says Dries. “All of Elena’s relationships will change going forward. It affects every character’s dynamic — Elena’s love triangle, her friendship with her girlfriends, her relationship with her brother and with herself . . . as she starts to wonder what she really wants and who she really is.”

The two men in Elena’s romantic life — Salvatore brothers Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) — are also at odds over their shared love interest. “They have very different views on whether Elana should drink the blood when she wakes up,” Dries say. “Damon believes there’s no way out of this and that she has to drink human blood so she won’t die.

“But Stefan thinks he can turn back the clock so this never happened — which puts the brothers in instant conflict.”

It’s that conflict, and good timing, which has kept “The Vampire Diaries” atop The CW’s ratings chart (it premiered between the “Twilight” movie franchise and AMC’s “The Walking Dead”).

“I feel we were a tiny bit ahead of the curve,” says Dries. “What the show did is sort of make people feel like they’re not outsiders for watching the genre.

“It doesn’t make you a nerd or uncool because you watch a vampires show.”