Nina Dobrev’s character on The Vampire Diaries may be immortal, but it looks like her time on the show will be less than eternal. The actress announced yesterday via a wordy Instagram post that the sixth season of the show would be her last.
“I’ve just spent the most beautiful weekend on Lake Lanier in Georgia with my own TVD Family, the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries. I want to be the first to tell you that it wasn’t just a holiday celebration, it was a goodbye party,” read her message to fans. The Degrassi alum went on to say, “I always knew I wanted Elena’s story to be a six season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime. I was a human, a vampire, a doppelganger, a crazy immortal, a doppelganger pretending to be human, a human pretending to be a doppelganger. I got kidnapped, killed, resurrected, tortured, cursed, body-snatched, was dead and undead, and there’s still so much more to come before the season finale in May. Elena fell in love not once, but twice, with two epic soulmates, and I myself made some of the best friends I’ll ever know and built an extended family I will love forever.”
Dobrev has been the show’s lead actress and breakout star over six seasons. The Vampire Diaries, which came to TV at the height of the Twilight inspired vampire craze, has managed to outlast the undead trend, but it’s unclear how it will restructure to go on without its leading lady. Dobrev isn’t the only departure from the core cast. Michael Trevino, who plays Tyler Lockwood on the supernatural soap, will also depart this season to star in ABC’s Kingmakers pilot.
Dobrev’s announcement sent social media into a tailspin as fans of the show reacted to the news. While some tweeted congratulations to the starlet, others were outraged that she would abandon the show that made her a household name. The only thing fans universally agreed on was their desire to see the show continue to a seventh season.
The fan panic is likely in vain since the CW already renewed the highly-rated series for a seventh season back in January knowing that Dobrev’s contract was up. The network and show runners seem confident that they can continue the show’s central plotlines without Dobrev, whose character Elena was a series lynchpin.
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