‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 spoilers: Series exec on Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery

Are you still reeling from the “Downton Abbey” season 3 finale? If so, it is surely understandable given that it may be one of the most painful endings to a collection of episodes in recent history. Even for the unlucky who knew that we were going to (spoiler!) see Dan Stevens’ Matthew Crawley pass away, it was still not a very easy thing to watch happen … especially considering that the character was gleefully driving home at the time of his death.

If you want to hear a detailed explanation of why Stevens chose to leave the series at the conclusion of season 3, you can find that out by merely heading on over to the link here. But for those of you who want to hear why the producers chose to make Matthew’s end so tragic, executive producer Gareth Neame attempts to clear that up by telling Entertainment Weekly that the show had to create a scenario in which Mary (Michelle Dockery) could continue on with the series, and no one would hate Matthew for leaving her on this world alone:

“I think we weren’t really faced with an alternative storyline, because I think audiences would not have accepted Mary and Matthew becoming estranged. It was too big a journey that the audience had been on with this relationship. The idea that he would go off on the journey and she wouldn’t go with him, or the idea that he would leave her or she would leave him, I think that would have been so disappointing and unbelievable to an audience. The only course open to us was that the character had to die.”

As for some early season 4 spoilers, Neame said in general terms that we would see Mary struggle with similar issues as Tom Branson, that Rose would have a much larger role (which he thinks is great as a representation of change), and he also gave the following comment on the story in general:

“You’ve been left with that very strong hook and I think there’s a sense from that [last] shot that Mary is going to be taking us through [the next season]. The destiny of Mary and her child is a big spine of the new season. You will still have the 20-25 characters, with all of their lives sort of intertwined. You’re going to have have the usual mixture of big dose of romance in there, you’re going to have laugh-out-loud comedy, and you’re going to have highs and lows of strong drama. And you’re going to have all of those three moments thrown together, which is at the root of the success of the show.”

Even though we do no longer have Stevens as a part of the cast, are you still planning to watch “Downton Abbey” season 4? If you want to hear some of the rumors surrounding who is a favorite to land the role of Mary’s new love interest, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: ITV