Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale conclude not just a film trilogy but a 15-year period drama franchise spanning 1912 to 1930.
The film concluded with Lord and Lady Grantham moving to the Dower House and leaving the stately home to their currently single eldest daughter, Lady Mary and her son George.
While most of the characters got their happy endings, the new movie felt more like the start of a new beginning for the franchise in a soft reboot.
The 76-year-old creator and screenwriter Julian Fellowes may be busy with The Gilded Age, but give it a few years and we’d expect either Downton Abbey 4 or a soft reboot TV series with or without him. After all, one star even said that “there’s been talk”.
Depending on how long a break, the Crawleys could host a Wilderness Years Winston Churchill, cover the 1936 Abdication Crisis and Lady Mary’s future romantic prospects.
With a big enough gap, an obvious option would be for Downton Abbey to return with a 1939 setting and the outbreak of World War 2 sd young George heads into battle. Whatever the case, we’d be very surprised if the original cast didn’t reprise their roles again, whether in the next few years or decades from now. No doubt in her old age, Michelle Dockery could play a Dowager in a Downton Abbey film or series set in the 1970s.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is out now in cinemas.