‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 spoilers: Michelle Dockery’s new suitors include…

While we learned some rather sad news about the exit of Mrs. O’Brien from “Downton Abbey” season 4 a little bit earlier in the day, we now do have something a little bit more pleasant to report on: we now know at least two young men who will be chasing after Michelle Dockery’s character of Mary in the upcoming episodes.

While we cannot confirm completely details about their characters just year, Tom Cullen (of “Last Days on Mars”) and Julian Ovenden (“Foyle’s War”) have each secured parts on the new season as two wealthy aristocrats who could be doing everything in their power to court the widow, even if there is no word yet as to whether or not she will even be ready to date following the death of Dan Stevens’ Matthew in the season 3 Christmas special. While there is going to be a massive jump of six months from the end of last season to the start of this one, time does not necessarily heal all wounds. (Update: We now have word that Cullen will be Lord Gillingham, which is the one prospective love interest we had heard about previously.)

In addition to this news, we are also hearing that opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa and Harriet Walter will also be making appearances on the new season, with the latter playing the part of an old friend to the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith). Hopefully, this means that she will get along with her far better than Shirley MacLaine’s Martha ever did.

What do you think about some of these castings, and do any of these names help to make up for the loss of a few beloved characters from the show? If you want to find out more about the most-recent departure, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: ITV