Put a White Oak Stake in it; after its upcoming eighth season, The Vampire Diaries shall be no more.

The decision was announced Saturday during The CW drama’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con; as you can imagine, the thousands of fans in attendance were not pleased.

TVD‘s seventh season wrapped May 13 with a bittersweet hour: Though Bonnie’s life was spared and Stefan got his long-awaited reunion with Caroline, Damon and Enzo fell prey to the nameless evil within the Armory’s vault, sending them on a west-coast killing spree.

While discussing Nina Dobrev’s cameo in the Season 7 finale — her first “appearance” on the show since departing in 2015 — executive producer Julie Plec confirmed that she hopes to see Elena return (in front of the camera) for the show’s big send-off.

“It’s what she and I kind of agreed on when she decided to move on, and it’s what I’ve got in my head,” Plec explained. “Obviously things can change throughout time, if the show goes on longer than we expect it to, or if we all collectively decide it would be fun to bring her back earlier, and she wanted to. … I’m sticking with my side of the plan, which is to bring her back at the very end.”

Sounds like a plan to us!

Vampire Diaries fans, are you prepared to say goodbye to the show after all these years? What are hopes for the characters’ limited futures? Drop ’em all in a comment below.