After Downton Abbey concluded its fifth season last month, multiple sources are now reporting that season six will be the show’s last.
Many of the cast’s contracts will expire after season six, and most of the actors are ready to work on other projects. Since multiple members of the main cast intend to leave the Emmy-award winning series, it would be impossible to continue.
“You can keep the show going without Matthew and Sybill, but you can’t continue it without the entire Crawley family,” an insider told TVLine.com.
Maggie Smith, who portrays the Dowager Countess, previously hinted that the period drama would soon be ending. “I can’t see how it could go on,” she said in an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times. “I mean, I certainly can’t keep going. To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We’re into the late 1920s.”
Downton Abbey is currently filming its final season. It is expected to premiere in the fall in the U.K. on ITV and in early 2016 in the U.S. on PBS.
