The Vampire Diaries may be about to end its run on The CW, but now we know that at least one familiar face will be back for some more dramatic goodness. Actress Tristin Mays will be reprising her role on the hit show as Sarah Salvatore.
The news came from TVLine today that Tristin Mays has signed up to return to the role of Sarah, a descendant of vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore. Mays originated the role in Season 6 and played the part through the end of that season. Along with her work on The Vampire Diaries, Mays has appeared on Alias, Everybody Hates Chris, True Jackson VP, Big Time Rush, The Newsroom and Supergirl. She also recently joined the CBS reboot of MacGyver as a series regular.
Unlike her headlining relatives, Sarah is still completely human. Her father, Zach, was a distant nephew to Damon and Stefan. She started life as a premature baby, having been born via C-section, seeing as how her mother died before being able to give birth. Once she was healthy enough, Stefan made sure she was adopted by a good family, thinking that she would be safer away from the Salvatore family and their supernatural entanglements. But, since she is family and Stefan cares about her, he keeps tabs on her throughout her life without Sarah or her adoptive family knowing about it.
When we first meet Sarah, she's a photography student at Duke University. Sarah quickly becomes embroiled in the machinations of the vampires around her, especially Enzo, who indulges her desire to know more about her biological family and the supernatural world that she's begun to be acquainted with. In the end, Sarah was convinced to leave Mystic Falls, and she decided it was better to continue to live a normal life with her adoptive family, rather than become even more involved in the exciting, yet dangerous, life that would await her if she stayed around her biological relatives.
Even though Sarah was allowed to leave town, she was not compelled to forget what she learned about vampires and other supernatural beings, so when she finally shows back up in Mystic Falls, there won't be much of a learning curve for her. What we don't know yet, though, is exactly why she'll show back up in town, or how long she'll be around during Season 8. Maybe Sarah will realize that she really does want the dangerous life that her real family can offer her, and she'll turn up to try getting into the good graces of Stefan or Damon. Or, maybe she actually needs something that only the vampires can gift her with, like eternal life.
Well, we can all see what kind of shenanigans Sarah Salvatore will get up to when The Vampire Diaries debuts its final season on October 21 on The CW.
