Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton, who played Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer on ‘One Tree Hill’ between 2003 and 2009, won’t be returning to the hit CW show this year, tvline.com is reporting. The young adult drama’s showrunner, Mark Schwahn, confirmed the news, silencing the rumors that the two would return to the series before the end of its current eighth season.

“It’s not going to happen. We won’t be seeing them this year,” Schwahn told TVLine. The news comes after fans hoped Murray and Burton would return for the wedding of Brooke, who is played by Sophia Bush, and Julian, who is portrayed by Austin Nichols, earlier this year. “Creatively, I would have loved to have them (for the wedding), or even at the end of the season,” Schwahn confessed.

The showrunner added that both actors were interested in returning for what might be the series finale in May. “But at the end of the day, it just didn’t work out,” Schwahn added. He was unable to secure a deal with Murray and Burton, who are both currently working on other projects; Murray is working on the movie ‘The Haunting in Georgia’ in Louisiana, and Burton is a series regular on USA’s ‘White Collar.’

Written by: Karen Benardello