‘Downton Abbey’ shocker: Is Dan Stevens really done after season 3?

Now that we officially know that “Downton Abbey” is coming back for a fourth season, this is the time in which the inevitable questions are going to be asked … including just who is going to be back on the hit ITV series after three years on the air.

As of this moment, there are three actors whose future is in some sort of question: Dan Stevens (Matthew), Michelle Dockery (Mary), and Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess). All three actors have been integral in the success of the program thus far, but none of the three have contracts that carry over into next year and could theoretically walk away.

So could all three end up leaving the show for good? This remains partially unclear, but a source tells the Sunday Express that Stevens is the most likely to walk away, and that the actor (who is currently working on Broadway in New York City) is the most likely to say goodbye to the show moving forward:

“Dan Stevens isn’t returning to the series. He will probably do the first episode of the fourth series, but that will be it.”

If this ends up being the case, we assume that it may at least be some consolation that he is not just wrapping up the show without at least giving some sort of closure to the Matthew story … even though this still rarely qualifies as anything. In all likelihood, this episode would just be used to write Matthew off so that he would be somewhere else while most of the action was taking place; that way, the door would be open for him to return down the road. But would “Downton Abbey” really separate Matthew and Mary after all this time? This ends up also raising the question as to what Dockery’s future could be, and we still don’t know why any actor would want to leave an award-winning series that also does not require you to work on set year-round.

Do you think that Stevens would regret leaving the show, that is if these reports are even true?