‘Downton Abbey’: Did Michelle Dockery Consider Leaving The Period Drama?

Michelle Dockery plays Lady Mary Crawley in the hit drama Downton Abbey and has said she was shocked about the way in which her on screen husband, Matthew Crawley, played by Dan Stevens was written off at the end of Season 3.

Now we are learning that Michelle also considered leaving the show. Dan Stevens had already decided to move on and did not renew his contract after the third season, leaving writer Julian Fellowes with the task of figuring out how to send the character off into the sunset.

Killing Matthew during the Christmas Special, shown on Christmas Day 2012 in England, did not go overly well. Fans complained that the episode ruined their holidays and both Fellowes and Dan Stevens got a lot of flack on social media. Some still haven’t forgiven Dan for leaving the show.

However, Michelle Dockery is still there. On Downton Abbey Season 4 she finds herself a widow with a baby to raise and no will to go on from what the trailer shows.

In a recent interview with Vulture, the actress, says she considered quitting the show,

“We all had that choice, and any one of us could have left. There was a point where I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m done after three,’ because that’s what I was expecting to happen: I would do three series and that would be it. And then of course the success of the show was huge and I had my doubts. I discovered there isn’t any rush. I wasn’t ready to finish whereas Dan was very ready to leave,” she explained.

Fellowes has said that Dan Stevens’ departure left the show open for new and interesting plot lines that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

But he has his work cut out for him trying to convince viewers that all will be well after the shocking ending of Downton Abbey last season.