‘Downton Abbey’ season 5 spoilers: Will Shirley MacLaine, Paul Giamatti return at all?

Over the past two seasons, “Downton Abbey” has managed to inject a little more American blood into the show courtesy of Cora’s mother Martha and brother Harold, played by Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti. The benefit that comes from the show doing this is pretty simple: It’s a chance to bring some more big names into the franchise. Also, their roles gave us backstory for Cora, and it opened the door for Daisy to leave during the season 5 Christmas Special.

What you are not going to see moving forward, though, is any more of them in the fifth season. It has now been confirmed that neither MacLaine nor Giamatti will be appearing at all on the ITV series, though you likely saw this coming. Had either one of them been showing up, after all, you would have probably heard some more news about it by now.

Still, there is little reason to think, based at least on comments from the TCA Summer Press Tour recently, that neither actor would be barred from forever appearing again. There are always opportunities to inject some more of these two into the mix, especially if we ever see some of the characters venture to America. We suppose that it would be expensive from a budgetary perspective, but there is already a thought of this in our brain that has us tremendously excited. Can you imagine any of these beloved characters in New York City or somewhere else?

What’s your reaction to this news, and are you disappointed at all about the lack of these two characters showing up? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and also head over here to grab some additional news related to the series. You can also sign up now to get some further TV news via our newsletter.

Photo: ITV