'Vampire Diaries' Creator Tried to Get Nina Dobrev to Stay

The Vampire Diaries co-creator Julie Plec is speaking out about Nina Dobrev‘s decision to leave the long-running CW series after this season ends.

“She was just looking forward to moving on with no hard feelings and no drama,” Julie said on the KCRW podcast last week. “This is taking the personal out of it completely, from a storytelling point of view it’s a great challenge. As writers in the room we’re finding it very rejuvenating. Just on a strictly creative exercise level.”

“Nina had said earlier this year that she wanted to be done and we spent a little bit of time trying to talk her out of it. [We'd say,] ‘Oh, look at all these great plans of how you can stay!’” she explained. “And she finally was like, ‘No, I signed up for six years. I’ve done my six years. I’m ready to move on and spread my wings.’”

Julie explained why she decided to have fans learn the news before the episode airs, unlike the time Josh Charles was killed off The Good Wife.

“A lot of people had a hard time with that. It was a beautiful shock, but there’s grief attached to that. And I’m looking at Vampire Diaries, which is now six years deep, and it’s the main character,” she said. “A lot of our audience — they’re still teenagers — and there is a profound attachment to this character and to this show. I started looking at it from a fan point of view and being like, ‘We need to tell them that it’s happening before it happens. You can’t just end the season and do what we’re going to do to this character.”

ARE YOU SAD that Nina Dobrev is leaving The Vampire Diaries?