'Nina is excited to spread her wings, get some rest, travel the world, and also take it by storm, and we support her a thousand-fold,' Plec added. In a statement to US Weekly, Julie Plec described Nina's exit as both 'bittersweet and beautiful'. 'Because if you can't take those journeys all the way to their conclusion, then why are we telling these stories in the first place?'Ī post shared by Nina Dobrev also revealed that she 'always knew I wanted Elena's story to be a six-season adventure', calling that time 'the journey of a lifetime'.

'Once we started talking about quote-unquote 'hell' and quote-unquote 'peace,' which is the Vampire Diaries version of heaven, it felt like if we're telling those stories, and we're telling stories about our characters trying to find their ultimate redemption and salvation with the end result being peace or hell, then it certainly now feels like this is the last season,' Plec told the publication at the time. She also noted that the decision ultimately came down to the storytelling, with it feeling like the right time to draw Vampire Diaries to a close. 'Some logistics, some contractual, where you were just like, 'OK if this person doesn't come back, is the show still going to be good? What if they do come back, but we don't know until the end?' A lot of that silly stuff you're not supposed to talk about. 'There were a lot of things that went into ,' she told Hollywood Reporter back in 2017. According to showrunner and co-creator Julie Plec, there was no simple, single answer.

Cast of the vampire diaries season 6