Downton Abbey what happened to Matthew

The Real Reason Matthew Was Killed On Downton Abbey

By Brooke Knappenberger/Feb. 22, 2022 3:42 pm EST

We are just a short while away from the return of the Crawleys on the big screen in "Downtown Abbey: A New Era." For many fans, six seasons of the series was not enough time with the aristocratic family and their amusing staff. Thankfully, series writer Julian Fellowes wasn't ready to close the doors on the series and released the "Downton Abbey" film in 2019, with "A New Era" on the way.

Much like a real household staff, the cast of "Downton Abbey" was ever-changing. There was the housemaid Gwen Harding (Rose Leslie) who left the abbey after landing a job as a typist. Then there was Jimmy Kent (Ed Speleers), a footman who was sacked after he was caught in bed with Lady Anstruther. The series doesn't shy away from killing off favorite characters, either. Footman William Mason (Thomas Howes) died from an injury sustained while fighting in WWI. Then, of course, every fan's heart shattered when Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) died after the birth of her baby. However, one character's death left fans in an uproar, more so than Lady Sybil.

Dan Stevens wanted to pursue other roles

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Throughout "Downton Abbey," Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) remained a steady will-they or won't-they couple, but then they finally professed their love for each other and were married at the beginning of Season 3. The two were constantly going back and forth with their feelings for each other, so fans finally got what they wanted when the two were married. In a cruel twist of fate, Matthew died at the end of Season 3 after a car crash, leaving fans devastated.

According to Dan Stevens, his character's sudden death was a personal choice to explore more acting roles. "It is a desire for freedom really," he told The Telegraph. "I don't see money or a particular status as an actor as a goal but I want to do the best work I can in as interesting a range of roles as I can. And I think a moment like this is quite unique and presents those opportunities more than ever before." Sadly Matthew's death means we can say for certain that  he won't be returning for "Downtown Abbey: A New Era."

Since finding fame on the hit series, Stevens has gone on to make an even more successful name for himself. He landed the lead role in "Beauty in the Beast" and "Apostle," plus the series "Legion."

As Downton Abbey winds down with its sixth and final season (premiering January 3 in the U.S.), fans might wonder whether the period drama’s creator, Julian Fellowes, regrets his most controversial plot decision—killing off Matthew during the show’s Christmas special several years back. And surprisingly, Fellowes isn’t remorseful about abruptly murdering off Lady Mary’s true love in a car crash. He is, however, wistful that he wasn’t able to wipe out another character in the off-camera pileup.

During a recent interview, Fellowes discussed planning Matthew’s shocking plot twist. “It was tough really because Jessica [Brown Findlay, who played Sybil,] had said she was going to leave right from the beginning. She said, ‘I'm doing three years, then I'm leaving.’ So that was all worked out,” Fellowes said of Sybil’s death, which occurred shortly after she gave birth to her and Branson’s baby daughter.

“But Dan [Stevens, who played Matthew,] only decided to leave when we were about to start filming, [had] already written five episodes and cast them,” Fellowes explained of his decision for the literally last-minute tragedy. “I couldn’t do more funerals, more memorials.”

If Stevens had given Fellowes more notice about his exit from the series, the Downton mastermind told RadioTimes.com, “I probably would have killed [Matthew and Sybil] together in a car crash.”

Well, when he puts it like that, maybe Matthew’s death wasn’t as tragic as it could have been.

In 2013, Fellowes further explained, “With Jessica, it seemed right to give her a whole episode that was about her death. With Dan, I had hoped that we would have one episode of this fourth season . . . so we could have ended the Christmas episode on a happy note—the baby, everything lovely. And then kill him in the first episode of the next series. But he didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want his death to dominate the Christmas special, so that’s why we killed him at the very, very end.”

Fellowes revealed that fans of the series have since punished him for Matthew’s fate.

“Some of the letters I received . . .” Fellowes continued. “I did feel very guilty as everyone sat down to that one extra mince pie and suddenly, ‘WHAT?’ But I paid.”

The final season of Downton Abbey premieres in the U.S. this January. Click here for some clues about the final episodes.

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