It's hard to believe the CW's long-running series The Vampire Diaries has already aired an entire season without Nina Dobrev as part of the lineup. Still, the show has thrived somewhat and was even renewed for Season 8 by the network. Unfortunately for fans of the long-running drama, Season 8 will also be the last for The Vampire Diaries. This begs the question: Will Nina Dobrev return to the drama? Showrunner Julie Plec indicates that the forecast is pretty darn good. Here's what she has to say:
Not to put too much pressure on anything Nina Dobrev, but a promise was made. An emotional promise that I'd like to see come to life. You heard it here. There's been friendship promises made, and now we'll see if we can deliver on them.
Speaking to TV Line at Comic-Con, Julie Plec and the cast were asked whether or not any former cast members would be making their way back to the show. While Ian Somerholder said the final season was more going to be about the nucleus of the cast, Plec basically straight up disagreed, stating that:
There's a dozen and more familiar faces that we miss. Taylor Kinney is single now, and I think he should make his way back... I would not be me if we were not revisiting some old faces. There's a lot of people we loved as characters on the show... and this is a year about celebrating what the series has been and what it has felt like to be together and love these characters. We will find interesting and creative---whether it's through memory or flashbacks or some other surprise---ways to just say hello and goodbye to those characters.
So not only should we hopefully expect to see Elena make her big return to the small screen, but we should be seeing a lot of the other well-liked characters making a return, as well. And from what Julie Plec is saying, we might even get to see some dearly departed characters make a comeback thanks to the use of things like flashbacks, which is not the worse idea I've ever heard.
Shows are just now starting to go into production for the fall, so the cast didn't have a great grasp of where exactly the final season will be going. (We especially know this because of the nucleus comment Somerholder made, bless his heart.) However, the good news is, while The Originals is being held until midseason, we will get new episodes of The Vampire Diaries starting in the fall. The final season of The Vampire Diaries is set to premiere on Friday, October 21 at 8 p.m. ET. You can check out when the rest of your favorite shows will be returning with our fall TV schedule.
