Done with Downton?

Spoiler Alert!

No, seriously: Spoiler facking Alert!

Heck, I coulda used one, but I also coulda used catching up with the PBS hit Downton Abbey by now (this shames me to admit but I’m like, perennially one ep short of finishing Season 1, which is silly, I know).

OK, ready? Here goes nothing.

The rumor was true: Dan Stevens, a.k.a. Matthew Crawley, is leaving the hizzy.

Much like Maggie Smith, Stevens was thought to be on the fence about returning for more once Season 3 wrapped up this year with a Christmas special (the lot of the actors were contracted for as many years, but the runaway success of the show expanded its life through fourth and fifth outings).

The actor has revealed that it was a desire to try something new that prompted his departure, adding that although “there is a strange sense of liberation at the same time [there is] a great sadness because I am very, very fond of the show and always will be.”

Indeed, Stevens currently can be seen on Broadway, in a revival of The Heiress opposite Jessica Chastain.

So there’s that.

Photo: Telegraph.co.uk.

Update 1: Click here for a spoilerific preview of what is to come.

Update 2: Here comes the backlash?

Downtown Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has candidly offered that there was no changing of Dan Stevens’ mind as far as not leaving the show. He added that in the U.K., the creatives are more at the mercy of the talent rather than the other way around, as far as where the stories head.

Totally get what the man is saying...but I hope Stevens gets that, at least in America, he’ll be perceived as a bit of a spoilled spoiler.

Or maybe not. He is too cute to stay mad at, after all.