Is Nina Dobrev heading back to The Vampire Diaries one last time?
Following the announcement that Season 8 of The Vampire Diaries would be its last, fans of the CW drama have been speculating about the possibility of Dobrev reprising her role as Elena one final time, and now the cast and crew of the vampire hit are speaking out.
Nina’s former co-workers got candid about Dobrev’s potential return during their final appearance as an ensemble at San Diego Comic Con 2016, where the show’s big players admitted to TV Line that they’re hoping to see Nina back reprise her character one final time.
“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,” The Vampire Diaries executive producer revealed when asked if fans of the drama can expect to see Dobrev back for season eight.
“You heard it here. There’s been friendship promises made, and now we’ll see if we can deliver on them,” Plec continued.
In a separate interview at the big event with BuddyTV , Julie further hinted that fans can expect to see Dobrev back , admitting that she feels it would be “a tragedy” if Nina didn’t make an appearance in The Vampire Diaries final season.
“There is nothing written in stone, but Nina made me a promise when she left that she would come back and be part of the goodbye, and I intend on holding her to that,” The Vampire Diaries executive producer revealed.
“I’m sure she intends on living up to it as well. We just have to figure it out: the how, the when, the what,” Plec added when quizzed about Nina’s return. “It would be a real tragedy if we couldn’t bring that story back around full-circle.”
Nina Dobrev has never officially or publicly confirmed her promise to return to the series one final time, though Plec claimed that the actress had told her after announcing her departure from the drama last year that she wanted to return to the showone last time for the final ever episode.
“It’s what she and I kind of agreed on when she decided to move on, and it’s what I’ve got in my head,” Julie told TV Line last year of Dobrev’s alleged vow to return for The Vampire Diaries ‘ upcoming series finale.
“I’m sticking with my side of the plan, which is to bring her back at the very end,” Plec added at the time.
But it’s not just the vampire drama’s executive producer who’s been hinting at Nina’s big return, as a number of Dobrev’s former co-stars have also spoken out about having Nina back.
Ian Somerhalder, who starred alongside Nina for six seasons, also spoke out about Nina’s potential return during the San Diego Comic Con event, joking, “I think that’s about 18.75 percent.”
Actor Zach Roerig also teased Dobrev’s return, telling TV Line , “At the end of the day, we’d love to have her back. This show wouldn’t be what it is without her.”
Nina is yet to speak out about the swirling rumors suggesting she’ll be back before the show officially comes to an end after Season 8, though she has made it known that she would more than likely be open to making a return.
Dobrev even made an appearance in season seven of the show following her departure, lending her voice to a dream sequence in the episode titled “Gods and Monsters.”
Fans speculated if Dobrev actually returned to the show or if the sequence was spliced together from old sound bites, though Plec confirmed that Nina did in fact head back to The Vampire Diaries‘ studios to record the voiceover piecein person.
“In this particular case, she came in and did the ADR [automated dialogue replacement],” the executive producer confirmed to TV Line , denying that the scene was compiled using old audio.
“I reached out and said, ‘We can either cobble it together from a bunch of episodes, or you can come in and see everybody and do ADR,” Plec continued of Nina’s season seven return. “She chose to do it in person, which was great, because it was a nice little personal Nina visit.”
Would you like to see Nina Dobrev return to The Vampire Diaries for one final time in Season 8?
[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]