The Vampire Diaries is officially coming back for its eighth and final season on October 21, it was announced today at Comic-Con.”It’s bittersweet and emotional,” co-creator Julie Plec told the audience, almost in tears. The other news of the Ballroom 20 panel was that fellow co-creator Kevin Williamson is back writing for the long running and SDCC fav CW series.

“What has yet to happen in Mystic Falls?” said the Dawson’s Creek creator after a sizzle reel of the upcoming season was shown to the fans. “And there is this really great thing to happen with this final bad,” he added. Plec also teased a new villain for TVD, though she won’t give many details except to say it was unlike anything the show has had before. “We have a finger so far,” she joked of the character that was developed after the WBTV series found out it was coming back one more time. The panel played a special SDCC only farewell reel for Ballroom 20.

There was no word if Nina Dobrev would return to her Elena Gilbert role in Season 8. Dobrev left the series as a full time character in Season 6 but had a cameo in Season 7.

Plec also joked that while she would not be able to do her musical episode, the midseason finale that the writers are currently breaking will have a lot of Christmas elements. “It is all about bring it all back home,” she said of TVD Season 8.

Williamson and Plec were joined at SDCC by cast members Candice King, Ian Somerhalder, Zach Roerig, Paul Wesley, Kat Graham and Michael Malarkey. “We have a lot of cool stuff coming up this year,” Malarkey told the crownd.