'Vampire Diaries' Spoilers, Cast News: Creator Tries but Fails to Convince Nina Dobrev to Stay

Just like most fans of "Vampire Diaries," creator Julie Plec wanted Nina Dobrev to stay in Mystic Falls. Plec talked about Dobrev's shocking exit after Season 6 during a KCRW podcast last Wednesday, April 29.

"She was just looking forward to moving on with no hard feelings and no drama," Plec, 42, said. "This 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," she said.

"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.'"

After it became clear that Dobrev would not be convinced to stay, Plec and Dobrev decided on what social media platform they would announce it on: Instagram. The reason they even announced it as opposed to just surprising the fans was that Plec was looking at it from the fans' perspective. She didn't want to surprise them. They have a profound attachment to the character, and the fans are fairly young. She wanted to tell them it's happening before it happened.

It was actually the death of Will Gardner (played by Josh Charles) in the show "The Good Wife" that guided them in their decision. People had a hard time coping with what happened. It was a beautiful shock, but there was intense grief attached to it. Plec said she couldn't do that to the fans of "Vampire Diaries." She owed it to them to give them warning.

Just recently, fans were outraged and upset to learn that Patrick Dempsey's character McDreamy in "Grey's Anatomy" had been killed. Plec said it was "...interesting."

Back to "Vampire Diaries," in its May 1 episode, Elena Gilbert (Dobrev) took the cure to be human again.

The question on everyone's mind right now is how the show itself will survive without Dobrev's character in it and how Dobrev will survive outside of the show that made her a star.

Dobrev has signed up with great agents, who hopefully will take her to another star-making assignment.

In terms of the show itself, some speculate that with one of the main characters leaving, there is a very high probability that the show will be cancelled in the next year, unless they make something out of Dobrev leaving that would pique and sustain the interest of the fans.