‘The Vampire Diaries’ Season 8: Rick Hearst of ‘General Hospital’ Joins TVD Cast; CW Still In Talks To Bring Nina Dobrev Back?

"The Vampire Diaries" is down to its eighth and final season. Not too fast, "General Hospital" star Rick Hearst has been cast to join TVD. It has also been earlier reported that Nina Dobrev is returning for the series finale.

Rick Hearst, who plays Ric Lansing in ABC's daytime soap "General Hospital" has landed a role in "The Vampire Diaries." The 65-year-old actor revealed his casting when he posted a photo of himself on Instagram with a caption, "My Digs for the next 2 Days! #thevampirediaries #actorslife #thisdoesnotsuck." Further details were still kept under the wraps though.

 My Digs for the next 2 Days! #thevampirediaries #actorslife #thisdoesnotsuck

A photo posted by Rick Hearst (@rickhearst) on Aug 3, 2016 at 4:08am PDT

In addition to "General Hospital" where he has been playing his role since 2002, Rick Hearst is known for his characters in "The Bold and the Beautiful" (2002-2011), "Brain Damage" (1988), and "Crossing the Line" (1990). He also appeared in other daytime soaps, "The Young and the Restless" and "Days of Our Lives," as well as in other primetime series.

Meanwhile, the CW president Mark Pedowitz said that TVD is still in discussions to bring Nina Dobrev back to the show, Us Weekly reported. Speaking at the Television Critics Association's press tour on Thursday, Pedowitz said, "We'd love to have Nina back. She was great for the CW - she was integral to The Vampire Diaries. These are discussions that go on."

During the Comic Con panel, "The Vampire Diaries" stars were asked about familiar faces coming back for the farewell season, to which Ian Somerhalder immediately responded, "no way, no how, would familiar faces return." But executive producer Julia Plec went on to mention that Nina Dobrev made an emotional promise to return to the series finale, much to the disappointment of Ian Somerhalder who said, "I thought we had a conversation about that, apparently not."

Would you like to see Elena back? "The Vampire Diaries" Season 8 premieres on Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.