The future of “Downton Abbey” was under a major question mark lately, after Maggie Smith announced that she is not planning to continue her work on the show. The announcement led many fans to believe that the show as a whole will get canceled, as the actress plays one of the major roles in it, that of Dowager Countess of Grantham Madame Crawley. Removing her from the cast and continuing the show isn’t really a viable option, obviously.
And now, the show’s producers have confirmed that the sixth season of “Downton Abbey” will be its last. The new season is going to air between September and January, and after that the production will be finished. It’s disappointing news to say the least, from the point of view of those who’ve been actively following the show – but on the other hand, it had a pretty successful run so far and it’s probably best to end it on a good note while still possible.
The show’s cancellation was confirmed by Gareth Neame, its executive producer, during a press conference held on Thursday. He also stated that he felt the time was right to end the show, and it sounded like he was actually against the idea of continuing it for other reasons, unrelated to the departure of Maggie Smith.
He went on to say that the show is currently in a good state, enjoyed by its fans and receiving strong critical acclaim, so it’s a good opportunity to end the production in a positive light. Neame also said that, while he could see the show continuing for many more years, he doesn’t want to see it falling into the same trap that other productions have found themselves in, and starting to feel forced after some point.
In the end, social accounts for the show started confirming the news as well, so there’s really no room for doubt right now – “Downton Abbey” is not coming back. However, there’s a whole new season for fans to enjoy coming in a few months, and that should definitely keep everyone happy until the production is over. And it’s not like this is the end for the cast either – if there is enough interest, we should definitely see another production in a similar style eventually. It may not be on the same network, but it will probably happen.
It’s also possible that the producers themselves will continue the story in a different format – there have been rumors about a planned full-feature film based on the TV show’s plot, but this isn’t confirmed at the moment. Neame did state that the show’s production crew would be interested in trying that, but he didn’t say whether or not they’re actually going to move forward with the idea.