The Vampire Diaries showrunner has confirmed that the show will conclude after its eighth season.
Update (July 23): During The Vampire Diaries panel at SDCC, the showrunner, Julie Plec, finally confirmed that season 8 would be the show’s last. “We’ve all discussed it. This is going to be the final season of The Vampire Diaries,” she said to the audience. She added, “we wanted to be the one to tell you guys first.”
To celebrate, The Vampire Diaries released a goodbye video which debut at the panel earlier today.
Update (April 13): The ending of the The Vampire Diaries may not be as set in stone as we once thought. Ian Somerhalder took to Twitter to do some damage control after he realized what large implications his remarks at Walker Stalker Con carried. He tweeted this as a response to his previous statement:
Hey all, so… Last weekend I talked to an audience at a Q&A about the end of #TVD and how excited I was to make what I believe – my last year – be as great as possible. Somehow in my infinite wisdom and end-of-season foggy brain, I managed to make it sound like the show was coming to an end. Cut-to the press running stories that the show would be done after Season 8. Thing is, the people who actually make that decision (the CW and WB) haven’t made it yet! So let’s take things one step at a time: Season 7 wrap, vacation, lots of sleep, let the writers get started on Season 8, and then we’ll all see where we go from there. Until then, much love ;)
Love,
Ian
After Ian made the statement shown in the original story below, the CW told news outlets that “no decision has been made” regarding the future of The Vampire Diaries, so Ian likely retracted his statement to support the network’s position.
While this does offer a glimmer of hope for The Vampire Diaries fans, it is well known that Somerhalder leaving would inevitably lead to the show ending. It has been said many times by showrunner, Julie Plec, that the show would not continue without Somerhalder and Paul Wesley at the helm.
The one way that the show could continue would be if Somerhalder somehow changed his mind about season 8 being “[his] last year,” since the network hasn’t officially decided to pull the plug yet.
Original story (April 10): After Kat Graham announced she would be leaving the show following season 8 earlier this week, Ian Somerhalder has upped the ante by announcing that the show will be ending at the same time.
The news came in the form of a tweet from the official twitter account of Walker Stalker Con, where Somerhalder, who is known for portraying Damon Salvatore on the show, announced the news in Nashville this weekend.
"We have decided to do one last season to really do the story justice" @iansomerhalder #WSNashville pic.twitter.com/J92egjkF6x
— Walker Stalker Con (@WalkrStalkrCon) April 10, 2016
This news will likely not come as a surprise to The Vampire Diaries fans, who were largely confused when the CW decided to pick the show up for an eighth season at all, since many believe the quality has suffered in its later seasons. Many believed the show should have had a strong finish with Nina Dobrev’s departure at the end of season 6.
There is still no confirmation from The Vampire Diaries showrunner, Julie Plec, that the show will actually be ending after season 8, but Ian Somerhalder’s certainty makes us pretty confident that this news reflects the truth.
There is also no word if the spinoff of The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, will be affected by this. If the spinoff show continues, that could be a possible avenue for the characters we love on The Vampire Diaries to continue. This would definitely be good news for certain shippers in the fandom. *cough* Klaroline *cough*
Hopefully, as Somerhalder expressed, knowing that season 8 is their final season will give them a chance to “do the story justice” and give the fans and the characters the ending they deserve.