Maggie Smith has announced she’s leaving Downtom Abbey after the sixth season of the show. Her character, Violet, is simply getting too old to be on the show.
Smith is 80, but Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, is much older.
“I certainly can’t keep going,” Smith told the Sunday Times. “To my knowledge I must be 110 by now. We’re into the late 1920s.”
Smith has played Lady Violet since the show’s inception in 2010. Downton creator Julian Fellowes and producer Gareth Naeme haven’t been clear about how long the show will go on for, but Fellowes has said it likely won’t go past the ‘30s.
Naeme has been vagued about the longevity of the show, saying it will last “between five and 10 seasons,” Daily News reports.
The fifth season’s finale aired on Sunday and the sixth season will start filming this spring and carry on through August.
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