It's the end of an era, and there are going to be tears.

"Vampire Diaries" co-creator and executive producer Julie Plec has teased that the upcoming series finale is going to be an "emotional experience." She opened up to Variety about what's to come and warned that it made her and her writers cry. You know what that means: Get your tissues ready.

"Seeing where these characters grew up, how these characters grew up, and what they grew into and what their future is going to be, I think it's an emotional experience," she told the publication.

With the show having cast its spell on audience over the past eight years, saying goodbye will definitely be hard. It's going to go out in style, though. Plec promised "so many familiar faces" and other blasts from the past.

"There is so much in this last episode that is either calling back on, celebrating, or mentioning things that happened in the early seasons," she said.

Although it might make you cry and at least one more death looks guaranteed, Plec seems to maybe, just maybe, hint at a happy ending. She discussed how the show "launched out of grief" (the death of Elena's parents) but "comes to its proper close."

"It's a show that ends with a sense of what peace means, and that was on purpose," she said.

"The Vampire Diaries" series finale airs Friday, March 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

[via: Variety]