It ain’t over till it’s over: How ‘Downton Abbey’ can keep going
MORE ONLINE
Go to myAJC.com to read related stories about a Cobb County writer's "Downton Abbey"-inspired novel and an annual weekend event on Sea Island attended by fans and stars of the series.
Sure, and Isis the dog is really dead, too.
The reaction to last week's announcement that "Downton Abbey" will call it quits after its upcoming sixth season was predictably over-the-top: Widespread grief at the end of the Dowager Countess's (Maggie Smith) supply of withering quips and Lord Grantham's (Hugh Bonneville) constant dithering over anything suggestive of progress or change. Plus sneers of the "What took them so long?" ilk from the smaller peanut gallery, which stubbornly refuses to accept that yes, "Downton" can subject those married sweethearts Anna and Bates to increasingly ridiculous murder plotlines and we'll all keep right on watching.
Mostly, though, nobody believed it. No sooner had the official "'Downton's' done for" tweet gone out than everyone started speculating about the possibility of a movie version. Or a spinoff TV series. Or a sequel.
What both did and didn't help was a series of tantalizingly obtuse comments from "Downton's" offscreen honchos at Carnival Films and PBS Masterpiece. "It's something that (creator) Julian (Fellowes) and I have been contemplating," executive producer Gareth Neame told The Hollywood Reporter about the movie idea. "When you have a hit, why wouldn't you?" PBS' Rebecca Eaton wondered aloud to Variety about a spinoff.
Both hastened to add that nothing specific’s in the works right now. But, c’mon. If “Downton Abbey” is to live on (wink, wink), here’s how it could happen, ranked from most to least likely:
- The movie blockbuster: Financing should be a cinch, given Hollywood's love for classy British fare. And it's probably easier to round up the cast again for a two-hour project that offers them big screen exposure and a chance to win an Oscar (a third Oscar, in Dame Maggie's case). The likeliest plotline involves the remarriage of Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), the smokin' widowed mom of Downton's toddler heir. A big family wedding's also the perfect excuse for Branson (Allen Leech), Lady Rose (Lily James) and, best of all, brassy, big-mouthed Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) to come back from America.
- The TV spinoff: Pure programming catnip to PBS Masterpiece, which likely thinks it could get six more seasons out of a new series, while barely breaking a sweat. Indeed, Daisy (Sophie McShera) could easily spin off to Mr. Mason's nearby farm or Anna and Bates (Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle) to running a small hotel; either concept would allow former cast members to pop in as guest stars. It's catnip to actors, too: Froggatt tweeted her own spinoff idea: "Anna Bates Investigates." And Leech and Robert James-Collier (nasty footman Thomas Barrow) have co-authored a spinoff script. "It's basically Barrow and Branson running rival bars in New York," Leech said. "'Cheers' meets 'Downton.'"
- The sequel (or prequel): Moving "Downton" a generation forward or back has its pluses — a new, cheaper cast of relative unknowns, a fresh set of societal issues to explore. But also minuses. Do we really want female characters all bustled, corseted and verbally muffled in a circa-1890s prequel? And even the indomitable Dowager would have to have died by the mid-1930s, when, as the website decider.com thoroughly explores, the sequel and World War II both would start. Lady Mary's son, George, would turn 18 "right when the Nazis invade Poland," according to decider, which predicts he'd join the RAF and much more about the plot. But not who'd replace the Dowager at verbally destroying any Nazi sympathizers who cross her path.
- The supernatural reboot: How better to leverage "Downton's" enduring popularity and the current craze for zombies and vampires than by bringing back dead characters to haunt the living? Picture Lady Mary's beloved hubby Matthew (Dan Stevens) and her expired Turkish lover Mr. Pamuk (Theo James) hovering like good and evil over her bed on date night. Or Isis, the dying dog Lord Grantham paid more attention to than his wife and daughters in season five, periodically padding through Downton to further mess with her master's head. Most of the "deceased" actors would probably love to be resurrected in cameos; and if the current cast is unavailable, just cut these new scenes into old episodes. We see dead people doing six seasons on the renamed "Downton Afterlife."
