‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 spoilers: Rumored Michelle Dockery love interest out

It looks like it will be someone other than Tom Ellis, after all, who gets the opportunity to try and romance Lady Mary Crawley on “Downton Abbey” season 4. The “Miranda” star was long rumored to be the frontrunner to take on the role (which may have included as much as a two-season commitment), but the actor has decided to take another role elsewhere.

According to TVLine, Ellis has signed on to appear in the dark ABC drama pilot “Gothica,” which revolves around the mythologies of a number of famed characters in literature such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dorian Grey. Basically, it’s “Once Upon a Time” for things that go bump in the night.

For those of you somewhat convinced still that Ellis could do both shows, we have a simple answer for you: it’s not happening. Perhaps producers for the ITV hit decided to go in another direction, or he was never as much of a front-runner as originally reported in the first place. While he could feasibly film season 4 while at the same time prepare this pilot and not have a whole lot of overlap, the troublesome thing with that is solely that if “Gothica” is picked up to series, Ellis would be unavailable to shoot “Downton Abbey” season 5. When you have a show as instrumental as this one is, they are not going to take a gamble on someone with a potential commitment somewhere else in the future.

The casting process for Lady Mary’s new significant other continues, and we imagine that even with the producers’ penchant for keeping things a secret, the name of the actor taking on the role will be revealed soon enough.

If you want to view some more scoop about who is getting a promotion for “Downton Abbey” season 4, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: ITV