By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Nina Dobrev
, who played lead character Elena Gilbert on the CW's Atlanta-based "Vampire Diaries," said she plans to leave the show after six seasons,
"I've spent the most beautiful weekend on Lake Lanier in Georgia with my own TVD Family, the cast and crew of The Vampire Diaries," she wrote. "I want to be the first to tell you that it just a holiday celebration. It was a goodbye party."
Here's her lengthy note in full:
Dobrev and her crew came to Atlanta as one of the first scripted TV productions in 2009 after Georgia sweetened its tax credits in 2008, which are some of the most generous in North America. The show is set in a fictional Mystic Falls, VA but much of it is shot in Covington and other areas in metro Atlanta.
She has been an active presence in Atlanta, spotted at hotspots all over town. She dated co-star Ian Somerhalder for a couple of years. My wife and I sat across from them at the Optimist on Valentine's Day 2013 just weeks before they broke up.
“Vampire Diaries” executive producer Julie Plec released a statement, in part: "Saying goodbye to Nina is both bittersweet and beautiful. After six-plus years together, the entire cast and crew of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ has reached a level of closeness that I don’t think any of us ever expected.... We will miss Nina and the 400 characters she played, but we look forward to the insane and exciting challenge of continuing to tell stories of our Salvatore Brothers and our much-loved and gifted ensemble.”
Actor Michael Trevino, who plays wolf hybrid Tyler Lockwood, is leaving as well. He is in the pilot of "Kingmakers," an ABC pilot also shot here in Atlanta.
Plec told Variety that she hopes the show will survive even as it loses leads: "For me, as we shed characters over the next couple of years, there's a challenge of keeping the storytelling fresh and exciting, and seeing if we can keep the audience excited and invested in the show because it takes a new spin and a new direction that's entertaining."
Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Candice Accola and Kat Graham are all set to return season seven.
E! Online's Kristin said she knew this was coming and hinted one of the three leads hadn't signed on for season seven.
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