For all intents and purposes, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is the last installment in this beloved, long-running franchise. The title alone signals this is the end of the line for the Crawleys and their faithful servants, and Downton Abbey 3‘s ending certainly feels like a true goodbye. Plus, the cast and crew have been fairly adamant that this is the end for them.
However, we live in an age where franchises are constantly getting rebooted and revived, regardless of whether they have reached a conclusive ending. If there’s a clear demand for more, and the studio is interested in continuing, there is always a path forward.
Downton Abbey has an opportunity to tell more stories in the future, even if the main ensemble has largely moved on. The Grand Finale plants some seeds for additional stories in the franchise, though they’re not as overt as one might expect. If there truly is any hope for continuing this series, there needed to be more focus on one particular element.
Downton Abbey’s Future Lies With The Children — But We Barely Know Them
the adults smile at Sybbie and George as they hug in Downton Abbey season 6
By the end of The Grand Finale, control of the titular estate has fallen completely to Mary (Michelle Dockery). However, whenever Mary is called the future of Downton, many characters are quick to follow-up with a key reminder: Someday, she’ll pass everything onto her son, George (Zac and Oliver Barker).
The next generation of Downton has already been formed through the main characters’ children. In addition to George, Mary has a daughter, and Tom Branson’s (Allen Leech) daughter Sybbie (Fifi Hart) is the eldest of the group. He, too, has another child at this point, and Edith (Laura Carmichael) has two kids of her own, the most prominent being Marigold (Eva Samms).
Save for the youngest children, all of these kids appear in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, building off their minor roles from the original series. However, even though George and Sybbie have been a part of the show since season 3, we barely know them. They remain background figures among the ensemble.
In The Grand Finale, George has perhaps one single line of dialogue, and Sybbie only greets her relatives. Marigold and Mary’s youngest daughter are largely shown playing in the distance, rather than becoming key parts of the action.
If Downton Abbey wished to return with a spinoff centered around the next generation, actually spending time with the children and developing their characters would’ve been a good idea. Right now, our affection for these kids comes from who their parents are; we’re especially sympathetic towards George and Sybbie since two of their parents — Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay), respectively — are fan-favorites who died tragically.
Beyond that, though, we know little about who they are as people. On Downton Abbey, they were young enough that it didn’t matter, but now, they’re approaching young adulthood and presumably have personalities, interests. The Grand Finale puts enough emphasis on George being Downton’s future after Mary, but we have minimal investment in that beyond his place as Mary’s heir.
It is perhaps The Grand Finale‘s biggest missed opportunity that we didn’t get the chance to learn more about these kids. Though the ensemble is large enough as it is, and Downton Abbey 3 needed to send off each beloved character properly, a few extra scenes with George, Sybbie, and Marigold would’ve gone a long way in making the franchise’s potential future clearer.
Is Another Downton Abbey Movie Going To Happen?
Robert presses his hand to the side of the Abbey in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
As of right now, there are no further Downton Abbey projects in development. Focus Features has played up the angle of The Grand Finale being the end, and that’ll likely be how it remains for the original cast. Creator Julian Fellowes has supported this notion, telling Deadline, “I think it’s the last with the original cast.”
However, franchise producer Gareth Neame then spoke to Variety and said that when it comes to a reboot, “it certainly couldn’t be ruled out at some stage in the future.” That’s the most common refrain when contemplating franchise continuations these days, and Downton Abbey seems like a prime series to revisit.
Affection among fans remains high. Of the three Downton Abbey movies, The Grand Finale holds the second-highest audience Rotten Tomatoes score with a glowing 96%, and it has earned close to $60 million worldwide. This is the kind of series people would have no problem with returning to every once in a while to see where various characters ended up.
It’s also worth mentioning that The Grand Finale wasn’t officially announced until early 2024, close to two years after the release of Downton Abbey: A New Era. The movie trilogy didn’t even begin until several years after the show itself ended, so there is clear precedent for the franchise taking its time with developing new projects.
Right now, nothing is officially in the works, and the Crawleys have received a proper conclusion. If the franchise is ever revived again, it might be smart for Downton Abbey to start investing in its next generation and devoting real attention to characters like George, Sybbie, and Marigold. It would be a clever way of connecting to the past while building something new — a very fitting sentiment, drawn from The Grand Finale itself.
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