Why Nina Dobrev Left The Vampire Diaries After 6 Seasons

This post contains spoilers for “The Vampire Diaries.”

When YA author L.J. Smith published the first installment in the “The Vampire Diaries” series in 1991, Elena Gilbert emerged as the face of this dark, exciting vampire story. But Elena is not your typical YA romance protagonist in a supernatural setting. Apart from being super popular and confident, she is also a bit of a mean girl, coming off as offputtingly self-centered when she is introduced in “The Awakening: Volume I.” She treats most people as objects to be collected and discarded, gliding through life as if she is owed preferential treatment just because. But beneath this dense shallowness lies an insecure, traumatized teenager who is secretly coping with the abrupt death of her parents. So, when Elena crosses paths with the mysterious Stefan Salvatore, her innate kindness blooms to the surface, as he inspires her to cultivate empathy for those around her. Just when Elena thinks she has found her soulmate, the truth shatters her fantasies: Stefan Salvatore is a vampire.

The CW adaptation of Smith’s novel series takes a markedly different approach to Elena. Nina Dobrev plays Elena as the quintessential girl next door, a sweet, considerable teenager who openly grieves the loss of her parents. Dobrev’s Elena is the opposite of her book counterpart in season 1, as she puts empathy before her own feelings and seems selfless to a fault. Just like in the books, her meeting with Stefan (Paul Wesley) fills her with tender hope, which is dashed once she learns the truth. However, Elena’s flaws only become more prominent as the CW show progresses, as her darkest instincts spill over after she turns into a vampire halfway through the series. There are times when she is unbelievably selfish, deliberately stifling the empathy she had nurtured all her life.

Dobrev also plays Elena’s doppelganger, Katherine, who is irredeemably evil in a way that injects excitement into any storyline in which she appears. Switching between the complex, flawed Elena and the manipulative, intriguing Katherine takes incredible skill, and Dobrev perfects this balancing act by making these characters feel distinctly different. However, Dobrev left “The Vampire Diaries” after season 6 despite being the heart of the show and only returned in season 8 (the final season) in a limited capacity. So what happened?

In an interview with Harper’s BazaarDobrev spoke at length about the fear of leaving the show, how it drove her to try new things, and the fact that she did not want to play a teenager anymore:

“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 (…) The things I want to do aren’t necessarily the things that are expected of me. I don’t want to play a teenager anymore. I want to play adult roles and be challenged and work with great filmmakers and tell incredible stories, and that has meant being really picky.”

This is fair, as Dobrev has appeared in a whopping 134 episodes in “The Vampire Diaries” while juggling multiple character arcs that only became more complex with time. I do not want to go into too much detail, but essentially, Elena and Stefan reincarnate as romantically fated doppelgangers across centuries, meaning that Dobrev played different iterations of these characters in the show, such as Amara and Tatia.

Katherine is also a prominent antagonist throughout, and much of the conflict in the series stems from her contentious relationship with Elena, where the two go head-to-head or are forced to work together. Dobrev’s presence over six seasons is foundational to the series, as her astounding range as an actor made even the most outlandish lore drops feel believable. Moreover, the desire to move on to something different after embodying a character for so long is only natural.

Although Elena’s absence was felt after Dobrev’s departure, the opportunity to flesh out sidelined dynamics and characters suddenly emerged. With Elena out of the equation, we got more insight into the Damon-Stefan sibling bond, and underutilized characters like Bonnie (Kat Graham) were able to take centerstage. Both Elena and Katherine return in the series finale to help wrap up loose ends, rounding things up with a happily-ever-after for the teenage girl who went to hell and back after meeting two beautiful vampire brothers.