Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame on why The Grand Finale Is definitely the end of the franchise as we know it — but a reboot can’t be rul
I'm working on clearing out my drafts, I forgot I had this in here whoops. Some thoughts:
The way I originally read this, and as well as taking into account Fellowes' comments during TGF etc., is that the story of these characters, and with this cast, is indeed over (an aside - Gareth also takes "reboot' to mean remake; tbf the example is given as part of the question is a remake anyway). And tbh that's how I felt with seeing the movie anyway. As much as S6CS felt final to me, TGF was even most so, especially with the epilogue in the credits.
Controversial opinion here, but I think this, at present, actually rules out a Next Generation story. WWII is literally in 9 years from where we have left off. If it's the end of these characters (and cast, as 9 years isn't that far off), that doesn't make sense, even if you aren't counting George as a 'character' as the kids barely ever had any lines. Mary would still be in charge of DA in 9 years. The characters didn't all completely go their separate ways, so there will be more than just Mary around as well imho.
Granted, part of the reason the TV show ended was because the cast was ready to move on. There's a reason that DA came back as movies and not a TV show, and even Gareth acknowledges that in article. Whoever would be appearing in Next Gen would be based on who was available likely, or maybe they would be hiring older actors, who knows.
I'm also thinking that given that WWI was reduced to a season likely WWII would be too in a Next Gen series, and then likely the following scenes would be set in the '50s, which I don't think Fellowes has any visions for.
I think is much more likely, at this point, to attempt to do a crossover with The Gilded Age. Now, it's been something that has been cited as too hard to do with who owns the IPs (although Carnival is involved with both), but if Fellowes and Gareth are pestered about something enough, they will try to do it. It also bends the rules a bit with things being "over" i.e. the end, if it's from before.
It also would be interesting to see if they would attempt to go even further back for a prequel, but another thing to keep in mind is that while DA revived the period drama genre in 2010, period dramas are less popular again these days. I think a lot of thought would have go into how they would want to approach that now, especially as how the TV landscape is completely different from 2010 in both the UK and the US. I honestly feel like it would really hard to recapture the audience in the same ways the did with DA, and if you look at the ratings of TGA, I wonder if that would be enough to keep things going.
I could be really wrong, but I feel like Fellowes wants to focus on TGA, and Gareth likely want to steer Carnival towards other projects as well. The short of it is a new DA series isn't currently in development.
