‘Vampire Diaries’ Season 8 Might Not Be The End For Damon And Stefan, CW President Says

Don’t plan a funeral for “The Vampire Diaries” just yet. CW President Mark Pedowitz refused to reveal whether Season 8 is the last year for the drama. Rumors have been swirling about the series’ fate, but Pedowitz assured “TVD” fans that nothing has been decided.

“In my dreams. it isn’t [the end], but we will see how the audience will react,” Pedowitz said of the show at the CW upfront presentation to advertisers (via Deadline). While he hopes “The Vampire Diaries” doesn’t get canceled, he added that “no determination” has been made.

Pedowitz also revealed that a comparatively shorter episode order is possible. “The Vampire Diaries” typically has 22 episodes a season, but it’s unclear whether that would be the case in Season 8.

Fans of “The Vampire Diaries” are constantly speculating about the series’ cancellation or renewal. A move to Friday nights and the loss of lead actress Nina Dobrev had many believing Season 7 would be the drama’s swan song. It survived, but the show will continue to lose lead actors.

Kat Graham, who plays Bonnie Bennett, announced that Season 8 would be her last run as the witch. More concerning is Ian Somerhalder’s departure. The actor who portrays Damon Salvatore accidentally implied the series would expire with Season 8, but he later revealed he just meant he would be departing at that time.

“Last weekend I talked to an audience at a Q&A about the end of #TVD and how excited I was to make what I believe — my last year — be as great as possible,” Somerhalder wrote on TwitPlus. “Somehow in my infinite wisdom and end-of-season foggy brain, I managed to make it sound like the show was coming to an end.”

Executive producer Julie Plec said this year that she would like to end the show when Somerhalder and Stefan Salvatore actor Paul Wesley are ready to retire their fangs. “My endgame needs to, in my opinion, emotionally run parallel with the endgame of Paul and Ian, more so than the network and the studio,” Plec told Variety in January. “When those boys decide that they’re done telling stories — which could be tomorrow and could be a year from now or two years from now or whatever — I need to be done. I feel like I owe them that, and I owe the show that.”

That decision is actually in the hands of the network and the studio, the CW and Warner Bros. They’re the ones who have to decide whether “The Vampire Diaries” can survive past Season 8.

“The Vampire Diaries” Season 8 will debut in the fall on the CW and retain its time slot Fridays at 8 p.m. EDT.