The Christmas special of Downton Abbey‘s third series left viewers with dropped jaws and many questions about the direction the show would take going forward. Executive producer Gareth Neame recently discussed Downton‘s attitude toward upcoming changes. Major series 3 spoilers ahead.
Downton Abbey fans of every stripe have been hotly debating the future of ITV’s soapy drama after the departure of lead actor Dan Stevens. As fans now know all too well, the actor’s decision necessitated the death of his character Matthew Crawley – heir to Downton Abbey and husband-at-long-last to the Crawley spitfire Lady Mary – in the series 3 Christmas special, and reactions to the twist have been mixed.
The show’s executive producer Gareth Neame recently shared his thoughts on what Matthew’s death means for Downton Abbey, taking an optimistic view on how it will impact the show on a story level.
“When you see something that feels like a difficult thing for a show — like an exit of a key character — it’s actually a dramatic opportunity,” Neame told TVLine. Stevens declined to renew his contract early on in the planning of series 3, which allowed the creators to anticipate the massive change and “flip the story in a whole different direction.” Neame also expressed his belief that the Matthew-shaped hole in the show would provide an opening for further development. “In any relationship drama, the will-they-or-won’t-they is always more interesting than married couples,” he said. “So actually what we’ve been able to do is reset [Lady Mary]. She has to start again, and that will be much more interesting.”
“Something that seems like a really big loss in the moment will actually turn into a great opportunity,” Neame added, speaking both of Dan Stevens’ career and of Downton Abbey. Both the actor and his former dramatic stage will now be able to “take a turn in a whole different direction.”
It remains to be seen whether or not fans of the show will find this reasoning compelling, as Stevens’ Matthew was both integral to the story of Downton Abbey and popular in his own right; many viewers attributed their interest in the show to his tempestuous relationship with Mary. Still, if nothing else, Matthew’s absence should provide plenty of meaty material for Michelle Dockery to wow us with in series 4, which is set to begin filming next month.
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