‘Downton Abbey’ Producer & Cast Talk Ending The Drama, Movie Potential

“Downton Abbey” returns in January for its sixth and final season, and fans have creator Julian Fellowes to thank for concluding it later than was originally planned.

‘Downton Abbey’ (Nick Briggs/Carnival Film and Television Limited/Masterpiece)

“Rather than being curtailed it was extended,” star Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham/Robert) told reporters on Saturday at the Masterpiece on PBS “Downton Abbey” panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour. “We were all expecting to finish after Series 5. And it was Julian who said to us… he felt it would be a bit truncated to try and bring it in to land over in that fifth series, so he asked if we wanted to do another nine episodes to make the stories all land in a more appropriate way.”

Shooting on the final season of “Downton” is currently underway, with filming set to conclude for good on August 15. The cast already completed their last scene at Highclere Castle, which has served as Downton throughout the show’s run, and they’ll complete their final scenes inside a studio over the next two weeks.

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Executive Producer Gareth Neame, who was present on the show’s TCA panel, said the networks (ITV in the UK, and Masterpiece on PBS in the US) would have taken additional seasons, but gave their support to those who made the decision to wrap up the show.

“Everyone’s been completely supportive of Julian and the producers and the cast who all felt that now was the right time,” the EP said. “There’s no question we could have made a Season 7 or 8. I’m sure they would have been fantastic, but it’s about leaving a little bit earlier than you might.”

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Asked by one reporter about the show wrapping its run in 1925, several years before the stock market crash, Gareth said there is potential to revisit a later period of the “Downton” characters in the future.

“I think if we’d gone for Season 7 or 8, we probably would have taken it that much further, but I guess, you know, there is this speculation about whether we’ll ever make a ‘Downton’ movie, and we might,” the producer said. “It’s something that we’ve talked about, but there’s no firm plans about that at all and it certainly means that we’ve got lots of rich territory that we could go into were that ever to happen, but, I mean, it’s a good point… I don’t know if I could bear to see Robert Grantham go through financial disaster.”

One thing viewers will see when “Downton” returns to Masterpiece on PBS on January 3, 2016 (its Season 6 premiere date) is Hugh’s character, Robert, continuing to adapt to the changing world. One clip critics saw from the new season featured Mr. Carson (Jim Broadbent) talking to Lord Grantham about staff downsizing — a smart move, considering something Hugh hinted was on the way for the drama.

“This final season very much has a flavor of the end of an era, you know, quite literally,” Hugh said. “And it’s brought home to [the characters] when we go to visit a neighbor in the county who is literally having to sell the family silver. … And the entire family sees that, and sees the writing on the wall. You adapt or you die, and I think Robert — [the] dinosaur that he has been at times — ultimately, whether he’s dragged, kicking and screaming by Mary or by his mother or by Cora, does adapt, does see that change is necessary.

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“He wants to conserve the best of the past, but absolutely understands that the future beckons, and the question in this series is do they succeed,” Hugh added.

— Jolie Lash