'Vampire Diaries': Nina Dobrev Will Leave Series After This Season

Say it ain't so, Elena!

Nina Dobrev has announced that she will be departing "The Vampire Diaries" after the current season, its sixth. Dobrev follows fellow castmates Steven R. McQueen and Michael Trevino, who also recently left the show.

However, unlike McQueen and Trevino, Dobrev is more or less the center of the show. Though storylines have focused more heavily on supporting players of late, Dobrev's Elena was the show's main protagonist from the beginning, and remains so.

Considering that the show has already been renewed for a seventh season that Dobrev won't be a part of, that presents a potential major shift for the show.

Dobrev's full statement follows:

"I've just spent the most beautiful weekend on Lake Lanier in Georgia with my own TVD Family, the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries. I want to be the first to tell you that it wasn't just a holiday celebration, it was a goodbye party," she wrote on 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. I was a human, a vampire, a doppelganger, a crazy immortal, a doppelganger pretending to be human, a human pretending to be a doppelganger. I got kidnapped, killed, resurrected, tortured, cursed, body-snatched, was dead and undead, and there's still so much more to come before the 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. 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 (I have given an exclusive interview for the June issue of SELF Magazine that I am excited for you to see!), 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 on to the next chapter of my life. I want to share this goodbye with all of you (this weekend's pictures were just the beginning). You, the wonderful fandom who gave 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."

Showrunner Julie Plec expressed her sadness over Dobrev's departure, calling her goodbye "bittersweet and beautiful." She also recently promised a "doozy of a storyline" for Damon and Elena in the remainder of this season, which may or may not be tweaked considering Dobrev's latest news.