Fans of The CW’s ‘The Vampire Diaries‘ are going to be crushed at the start of the seventh season as Nina Dobrev (‘The Final Girls’,’Let’s Be Cops’) is set to depart from the series.

Yes, the series is set to continue without Elena. With her off of the series there will quite possibly be a big shift in direction as the season opens. While sad to leave, Dobrev was still quite open about her decision and looks forward to the future:

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. 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. There’s more to come before we wrap this up, and I promise you’ll get to hear all about my experiences over the next month as we approach the season finale (I have given an exclusive interview for the June issue of SELF Magazine that I am excited for you to see!), but until then I invite you to hop on the roller coaster ride that is Elena Gilbert’s life and join me as I celebrate her and prepare to say goodbye to her — and to my work family — as I move on to the next chapter of my life. I want to share this goodbye with all of you (this weekend’s pictures were just the beginning). You, the wonderful fandom who gave more love, support and passion than anyone could have ever imagined seven years ago, when a young Degrassi girl from Canada showed up in LA to audition for ‘that Twilight TV show.’ ;-) I love you all. Fasten your seatbelts. If you think you know what’s coming, you don’t.

Executive Producer Julie Plec also openly said goodbye and wished her well:

Saying goodbye to Nina is both bittersweet and beautiful. After six-plus years together, the entire cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries has reached a level of closeness that I don’t think any of us ever expected. 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. We will miss Nina and the 400 characters she played, but we look forward to the insane and exciting challenge of continuing to tell stories of our Salvatore Brothers and our much-loved and gifted ensemble.

With a series where people can be brought back to life, it will be interesting to see how closed off they will have her departure at the end of the season. Will she die? Will she leave the world of the paranormal behind for a start fresh? It is hard to tell from that statement, but since Plec made a public goodbye to Dobrev, it is doubtful that this is going to lead into some other kind of spin-off series and she’ll most likely be gone for good.

Debrov may not be the only casualty for the show. It looks as if Michael Trevino’s Tyler will also be taking a much less active role on the series – if he even continues to appear. Trevino is attached to ABC’s ‘The Kingmakers’ pilot and if that project gets a series order, it appears that he’ll be off ‘Vampire Diaries’ as his role on ‘The Kingmakers’ is a “first position” one so he’ll have to leave ‘The Vampire Diaries’ to star in it. However his leaving wouldn’t be quite as permanent accordinng to Plec:

Michael has been a beloved member of the Vampire Diaries family since Day 1,” Plec said in a statement. “Even though he’s also going to be out in the world exploring new opportunities, we look forward to finding creative ways to make sure he and his character Tyler Lockwood always remain a part of the show.

So while it doesn’t sound if Tevino will be shuffling off his mortal coil, but if ‘The Kingmakers’ does get picked up you can expect that he will clearly no longer be a series regular.

Are you a fan of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and think it was time to say goodbye to Elena or will this drive a stake through the heart of your viewing pleasure of the series? Share your thoughts below!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter