The 'Downton Abbey' Cast Drops Hints About the Final Season — and a Movie?

Fans don’t want Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey to end, and PBS doesn’t, either: The Emmy-winning U.K. import is officially the network’s highest-rated drama of all time. But end it shall, with a sixth and final season kicking off January 3, and the show’s cast and producers joined reporters at PBS’s Television Critics Association summer press tour Saturday to bid a fond farewell to the Crawleys.

The panel kicked off with a tantalizing glimpse of what’s in store for the final season. The year is 1925: The kids are growing up, Edith is looking to spread her wings (“I’d like a life”), and even though they’re engaged, Mr. Carson still refuses to call Mrs. Hughes by her first name. (It’s “Elsie,” for the record.) Plus, we’ll get to see the Dowager Countess and Isobel locked in another verbal sparring match, with the Countess hissing, “May the best man win.” (And the best man is always the Dowager Countess, of course.)

Related: ‘Downton Abbey’ EP: Emmy Noms Will ‘Inspire Everyone to a Great Finish’

The cast only has two weeks left of filming on the series, and they’ve already wrapped production at Highclere Castle, which stands in for Downton on the show. Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) remembers the cast gathering for a “team photo” in the Granthams’ dining room, and Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary) and Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith) said they shared a moment together on the famous bench outside the castle: “We had a good cry.”

But dry your eyes, Downton fans: Even though the show is definitely ending, executive producer Gareth Neame confirms that a follow-up movie is still a possibility. “We might… it’s something we’ve talked about,” he says, adding that there is plenty of “rich territory” left, dramatically speaking. But, he’s quick to say, “there are no firm plans at all” for a movie — yet.

More highlights from today’s Downton Abbey panel:

* Penelope Wilton (Isobel) talked about her scenes with Emmy winner Maggie Smith, and their characters’ “fractious and affectionate relationship.” But she admits she’s always at a disadvantage because of how much creator Julian Fellowes delights in writing dialogue for Smith: “I think in another life, Julian would be Lady Grantham.”

* Neame got a bit sheepish when the subject of the show’s Christmas episodes came up; the Season 3 finale, which aired in the U.K. on Christmas Day, infamously ended with family heir Matthew Crawley dying in a car accident. “15 million households felt they lost a member of their family,” he remembers. “That was a bit awkward.”

* Bonneville says that a big theme of Fellowes’s writing on Downton is that “human nature tries to do good” — even villainous characters like Thomas have good intentions on some level. But he adds that the one thing he did learn from his years on Downton was: “The only people who smoke cigarettes are up to no good.”

* Downton’s eternally put-upon butler Mr. Molesley, played by Kevin Doyle, got a nice shout-out from Neame, who said that Molesley was only meant to be a minor character, but Doyle “was so impressive in his initial scenes… instantly, we knew we wanted to keep him as a regular character.” Alright, Molesley!

* It didn’t take long for Elizabeth McGovern (Cora) to see the potential in Downton Abbey. She remembers that their very first table read together as a cast was magical: “On that day, I knew it was going to be something special.”

* Sisters Mary and Edith were nasty to each other throughout the series, but Dockery and Carmichael loved that; in fact, Dockery says they were disappointed when Fellowes wrote scenes where the two were actually nice to each other. Carmichael added that sisters have a special capacity to hurt each other: “You know your sister more than you know anyone else… and you know where to stick the knife in.”

* When asked what they’ll miss most about Downton, Dockery said she’ll miss the clothes she got to wear as Lady Mary. To which Joanne Froggatt, who played housemaid Anna Bates, replied: “I won’t miss mine!”

* The cast has had their share of encounters with rabid Downton fans over the years. Bonneville recalled a run-in with a particularly enthusiastic fan at a Banana Republic with fellow cast member Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates): “We had to sit her down and fan her.”

* Neame understands some fans will be disappointed that the show is ending, but he wants to go out on a high note: “The best thing that I can hear is that you don’t want the show to end.” He hopes fans will go back after the finale and re-watch the whole series from the beginning: “And I want you to love it for the rest of your life.”

The final season of Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey premieres Sunday, Jan. 3 on PBS.