Last year, the third and seemingly final Downton Abbey movie, The Grand Finale, was released in cinemas. Yet, just like the TV series and other films in the hit period drama, it felt somewhat like another cliffhanger. Lord and Lady Grantham had moved into the Dower House so Mary, who remains single, could run Downton Abbey herself into the 1930s. But is it really the end? Creator Julian Fellowes has previously shared why it likely is, at least for now.
Fellowes told Entertainment Weekly last year that he wanted Downton Abbey to conclude before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in the lead-up to World War 2. The 76-year-old shared: “I wanted to leave at a time when that had not yet become apparent as a threat…I wanted to be sure that the public who’d followed their fortunes felt happy and satisfied to say goodbye to these people. In other words, I felt they needed to have an indication of where they were all going and how they were all going to deal with the changing world. It’s no longer going to be a world of white tie and footmen; that was on its way out. So, we needed to be sure that they would be okay.”
Nevertheless, there are rumours that a spin-off is in the works.