When the lights go down on the Thursday night (February 12) episode of "The Vampire Diaries," it will also be "lights out" for one of the series' original stars -- as you've probably heard by now, Jeremy himself, Steven R. McQueen, will say goodbye during "Stay." And while this is obviously terrible news for his many fans, for McQueen himself it's been a mixed bag... mostly because of the great relief that comes from no longer having to be shirtless on television.

"I’ve been allowing myself a little French toast here and there," he told MTV News over the phone. "It might be time for me to start honing it again; getting myself on the chicken and veggies diet. I took a week and I was like, 'Time for some Top Ramen, some MSG, some French toast, some In-N-Out Burger.' I forgot about the In-N-Out. I’m all about it. Double-double, animal style? And Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme, Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco?"

... We nearly lost him there, but we pulled the handsome actor back in with talk of playing a superhero, which is, undoubtedly, his number one goal after leaving "TVD."

"I would like to be a superhero," McQueen, who had just returned from a Batman museum when he called me, said. "There’s a character called Nightwing that I would absolutely love to play, I think that would be absolutely incredible. But in saying that, I read comic books, so any superhero character for me would be a dream. Nightwing is one I’ve been batting for for awhile."

There's no official news on the Nightwing front yet, but McQueen also told us he'd be more than happy to move on with his CW neighbors "Arrow" or "The Flash." But for now, he's still saying goodbye to "Vampire Diaries"... and of course, his grieving costars.

"The final day on set was pretty incredible," McQueen explained. "The last scene I shot – I can’t really say what happens, but there was a foot on my face... they shot this scene about ten times, before I was like, '[director] Chris [Grismer], what’s going on buddy?’... And they tilt the cameras up, and the entire cast and entire crew comes running out in these superhero costumes with a big cake, they shove the cake in my face, and they kept the cameras rolling while they did this... I got all choked up, and it was a beautiful moment. I went from having a foot on my face to saying goodbye to all of my close friends. It was beautiful."

It was also beautiful to McQueen's frequent scene parter Zach Roerig, who apparently took his exit a little harder -- at least on the outside -- than anybody else.

"I felt like Roerig got a little emotional," McQueen said. "It was nice. The rest were like, ‘You fart too much, get off set.’"

... Gross. But all jokes aside, McQueen says that Jeremy's goodbye should not be final, especially since his longtime onscreen love Bonnie (Kat Graham) is still stuck in '90s purgatory.

"I love it, because I’m still alive and I can still visit and see my friends again if they invite me back," he said. "If Bonnie comes back, I could come back for like an episode or two and see all of my friends. It should be nice."