Warning: SPOILERS for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale are forward!
The Downton Abbey TV collection led to 2015 after six seasons, however followers continued to spend time with the Crawley household and their employees for 3 theatrical films. Now, with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’s launch on the 2025 films schedule, it appears like this historic drama has lastly come to a detailed… proper? Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes addressed a technique this franchise might probably come again, in addition to why it by no means delved into World Battle II.
Why Downton Abbey Skipped World Battle II
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale takes place in 1930, only one yr after the Wall Avenue Crash and 18 years after the sinking of the Titanic, once we met these characters. In an interview with THR, Julian Fellowes stated that he all the time knew this saga was going to finish with Mary Talbot taking on the Downton property and her dad and mom, Robert and Cora, transferring into the home the place the late Violet Grantham as soon as lived. Fellowes knew he didn’t wish to go any additional than that, saying:
I’m not a fan of talcum powder hair and wobbly stick appearing. To go on, we might be pushing our luck a bit and ultimately be dealing with the Second World Battle.
Though the Downton Abbey TV collection occurred throughout 13 years, I agree with Fellowes that making the leap to 1939, when World Battle II started, would have been an excessive amount of of a stretch. It’s one factor to cowl so a few years if you’re making seasons comprised of seven or eight episodes which might be an hour every, it’s one other factor to cowl such a lot of time over only a few films that run roughly two hours. Had two or three extra Downton Abbey films been made, possibly hitting the late Thirties or early Forties might have been achieved, however followers will simply must make do with the collection overlaying World Battle I.
How Julian Fellowes Thinks Downton Abbey May Return
Even with this newest film being referred to as The Grand Finale, there are questions on if Downton Abbey might proceed/return sometime. Whereas Julian Fellowes has stated a number of occasions that this would be the final time we see this era of characters, he talked about in a separate interview with EW he’s open to the potential for revisit the property by way of a distinct lens. In his phrases:
[I’m] not towards the thought of revisiting Downton, however it must be in a distinct interval of historical past in order that their issues have been totally different and so they have been dealing with totally different points. On that foundation, I do not see why not, however we’ll must see what occurs.
One risk goes backwards in time to see how the Downton property was run within the late 1800s and even additional again. Nonetheless, this will likely overlap an excessive amount of with what Fellowes is doing with HBO’s The Gilded Age, and Fellowes has acknowledged {that a} crossover between the 2 properties might work. The opposite possibility is leaping forward a number of many years and seeing what’s occurring at Downton within the Nineteen Sixties or Nineteen Seventies. This might enable for us to spend time with the now-adult-aged kids of characters like Mary and Edith.
For now, the ebook is closed on Downton Abbey, however clearly if that modifications within the coming years, we’ll let you already know. Whereas The Grand Finale continues its theatrical run, the TV collection and first two films will be streamed with a Peacock subscription.