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Ian Somerhalder Confirms Season 8 Of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Will Be Its Last

By Pam Wright
Published on: 08:04 PST, Apr 10, 2016

Ian Somerhalder from The Vampire Diaries has announced that Season 8 of the popular series will be his last season as Damon Salvatore. With his exit, it will very likely be the end of the series as well.

While The CW has not yet issued a formal statement saying that Season 8 will be the last for The Vampire Diaries, Somerhalder’s announcement at the 2016 WalkerStalkerCon in Nashville on Sunday seems to confirm that the series will soon come to an end.

“We have decided to do one last season to really do the story justice. My role is shifting in the show, and we have a lot to do basically.”

While the series could conceivably continue, it would seem unlikely with three of the main characters gone. With only Ian’s on-screen brother Paul Wesley remaining, it doesn’t look good for Mystic Falls.

Last year, Nina Dobrev left the series and her role as Elena, and Kat Graham confirmed this week that she will also exit the series after Season 8.

“Season 8 will be my last season. I just hope that whatever I do after, the crew can come with me. … The crew is going to be the hardest thing to let go, because we are a family.”

Executive producer Julie Plec told E! Online in January that the show would end if another one of the actors from the original trio wanted to leave.

“When they are ready to be done telling the story, I will put my pencil down and say that I’m done too, and then we will work together to end it in the best way possible. There’s always things that could go wrong in that scenario; there’s always pressure that can be put on, but… the three of us I’d like to think will make the creative decision of when the show should be over.”

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Somerhalder has had many memories to cherish playing Damon for eight years. But, in a recent blog post for Entertainment Weekly, Somerhalder revealed that his hardest scene on The Vampire Diaries happened way back in the second season of the show.

“Episode 14 of Season 2. It’s when Damon is lying in the road, and the girl Jessica pulls up. She gets out of the car looking at this peculiar scene, a man lying in the middle the road drinking out of a flask … He is so distraught, missing being human, but he can tell no one his true feelings unless he compels them and kills them.”

Somerhalder went on to explain that the scene stuck out as particularly difficult because it “was such a cathartic scene for me to shoot.”

Somerhalder remembered a close runner-up to the scene from Season 2.

“A very close second was the scene at the end of episode 10 of this season when Damon tells his mom that he loves her and that he’s sorry in the battle! Wow, two great scenes…”

Meanwhile, Ian Somerhalder and his wife, Nikki Reed, turned up the heat on the red carpet for WE Day California on Thursday evening. The couple even appeared together on stage for the event, which is meant to celebrate young individuals who are making a difference in local and global communities.

Ian and Nikki, who tied the knot last year in a gorgeous outdoor wedding, have continued to work tirelessly for the causes they support.

The Vampire Diaries airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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