Downton Abbey’s Future Receives Big Blow By Creator Julian Fellowes

Downton Abbey could end sooner than you think – creator Julian Fellowes has dropped some heavy hints in a new interview about the show's fate...

Downton Abbey’s creator, Julian Fellowes, has suggested that the ITV show’s next series could be its last. Sad face.

Hinting at the news fans had hoped not to hear, Fellowes admitted to not having planned past the period drama’s fifth season.

The British programme could also come to an end as the team turns its attention to a new US drama, The Gilded Age – which has already been commissioned – but won’t begin until Downton Abbey has finished for good.

‘It's for NBC Universal and it will happen when Downton finishes because I just couldn't do both at once,’ Fellowes told the Wall Street Journal.

‘I haven't written it yet, but it's about the old aristocracy, the Winthrops and the Stuyvesants and the new money of oil and gas and shipping in the 1870s. It will all be fiction – it won't be real people – but when those families descended on New York, they took over.’

Reassuring fans that there would definitely be a fifth series, he added: ‘I don't know yet if there is a season six, but it's not going to go on forever. It won't be Perry Mason.'

The Crawley Family and co will return to our screens following last month's Christmas special. But after five years of filming, some insiders have suggested many of the stars are now seeking opportunities in Hollywood. While other rumours claim many contracts will be too expensive to renew after 2015. 

Will you be sad to see Downton Abbey end after the next series? We don't know how we'll cope on Sunday nights...

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