Well, what a long, strange trip it’s been. After six years starring in “The Vampire Diaries,” actress Nina Dobrev is stepping away, having confirmed the news via Instagram.
“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,” she captioned alongside a photo of herself and series creator and showrunner Julie Plec. “I was a human, a vampire, a doppleganger, a crazy immortal, a doppleganger pretending to be a human, a human pretending to be a doppleganger. I got kidnapped, killed, resurrected, tortured, cursed, body-snatched, and was dead and undead, and there’s still so much more to come before hte 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.”
It was a really long caption.
“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,” Dobrev continued. “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 onto the next chapter of my life. I want to share this goodbye with all of you. You, the wonderful fandom who gave me 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.”
Seriously, this is the only time a novel-length Instagram post is allowed. Dobrev also shared that she’s given an exclusive interview with SELF, hitting shelves this May (it’s the June issue), and Plec also issued a formal goodbye-to-Nina statement.
“Saying goodbye to Nina is both bittersweet and beautiful,” she said to People. “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.”
