‘Downton Abbey’ season 6: Who is not interested in potential spin-off film?

The series finale of “Downton Abbey” is going to air on ITV this Christmas, and it certainly appears as though there is one person in particular who is far from interested in appearing in a spin-off movie after that.

Who is it? The answer should surprise you: It’s Maggie Smith. This is not an issue of her being difficult or anything of the sort, so don’t sound the conspiracy alarms; as she told Graham Norton in the same interview in which she made it clear she was happy for the show to end, she doesn’t want to do anything beyond the Christmas Special because the Dowager Countess would be too old for it to make any sense. Specifically, “what age would she be?” was a question she uttered, a reference already to the fact that her character has to be extremely old based on how many years have passed since the start of the show.

If Smith does not appear in a spin-off, can it still happen? Our answer is “sure,” but we don’t think that it should … largely because we don’t think that it should in the first place. What is really going to be gained by throwing all of these people in a movie theater? There is a perfect opportunity already to wrap up the show this year, and changing the medium doesn’t really do much for us. This is not “Firefly,” a show canceled before its time that needed a movie in “Serenity.” This is a show that had every opportunity and then some to tell its story. Best to let everyone move forward.

There are still three more episodes still to cover, and we will of course be looking at all of them extensively. Stay tuned!