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Even before The Gilded Age premiered on HBO in 2022, fans have been asking whether the show is tied in any way to series creator Julian Fellowes’ blockbuster period drama Downton Abbey. And so far, even with multiple seasons and movies for Downtown, and three seasons for Gilded Age, the answer has been “no.” But at the same time, Fellowes and company have been toying with the idea to tie the two together for well over a decade, going back to the birth of the Gilded Age.

In fact, back in 2012, what would eventually morph into The Gilded Age started life as an explicit prequel to Downton Abbey. Picked up by ITV, the show would have focused on the courtship and eventual marriage of Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville on Downton), aka the Earl of Grantham, and Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern on Downton), aka the Countess of Grantham.

By 2016, the connection between the two was less explicit. The show had moved from ITV to NBC, and when discussing Gilded Age after the end of Downton Abbey’s TV run with the LA Times, Fellowes didn’t mention Young Cora Crawley at all, or any Downton characters – just the challenge of moving the action from rich people in England in the 1900s, to rich people in America in the late 1800s. For some context there, Fellowes did not say he wasn’t focusing on Cora, who was canonically born in 1868, lived in Cincinnati, and then moved to London in 1888. But he also didn’t mention her at this point, so it’s possible the concept was already starting to veer from Downton prequel territory.

In 2018, Gilded Age was officially picked up by NBC for a 10-episode first season, and indeed, was devoid of any Crawley mention. The concept by that point was pretty close to what we would eventually see on HBO: Marian Brook (played on HBO by Louisa Jacobson) is “the wide-eyed young scion of a conservative family who will embark on infiltrating the wealthy neighboring family dominated by ruthless railroad tycoon George Russell, his rakish and available son Larry, and his ambitious wife Bertha, whose ‘new money’ is a barrier to acceptance by the Astor and Vanderbilt set.”

The show was also being sold as a follow-up to Downton for Fellowes – a spiritual successor, rather than part of the Downton Abbey Cinematic Universe (DACU). A few months later in the same year, it was announced that Downton would continue – but as a feature film, not a prequel TV series.

Gilded Age moved to HBO in 2019, and officially premiered in 2022, alongside the sequel to the Downton Abbey movie, A New Era. And naturally, questions arose about whether the two were connected in any way. The answer, at least in 2022, was pretty much a very waffle-y “probably not.”

“[A crossover is] not in the thinking at all,” Gareth Neame, executive producer on Gilded Age and Downton Abbey, told TV Line in January of 2022. “It’s a separate universe, but they’re both fictions set in the 1880s. Downton Abbey, in its own fiction, was definitely there. A younger version of the Maggie Smith character would be living there, I guess. But it’s not really planned.”

Fellowes, however, seemed more open to the idea. Around the same time – aka, the premiere of The Gilded Age’s first season – Fellowes told Deadline that, “I’ve learned this much, never say never. I’ll stick with that as my answer.”

And later in May of 2022, Fellowes seemed to have given it all a little more thought. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter before the premiere of Downton Abbey: A New Era, Fellowes threw out a few options for tying the two together, including a focus on a young version of Dame Maggie Smith’s character, Violet.

“Of course, The Gilded Age is happening 30 years before Downton started, so the only thing you’d be able to see really was for the young Violet – well, no, not that young, actually, because her son would be grown up and her son and daughter-in-law would be getting married in about six years’ time,” Fellowes mused. “So I suppose he’d be about 20 and she’d be about 13. But I’m not quite sure what there is to do with that. But we might, I suppose, reasonably enough see Cora’s mother, who was quite a vivid character, if you remember. I haven’t made any decision on that, but it’s a different world.”

Since those interviews in 2022, we got a second season of The Gilded Age on HBO, and this year, a third season, as well as a third and potentially final Downton Abbey movie, appropriately titled The Grand Finale. While there was nary an update on the subject of a Downton Abbey: Endgame-style mashup between the two series since then, with certain plot points in Gilded Age Season 3, the subject has reared its head once again.

Specifically – and spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 3 past this point – Gladys Russell’s (Taissa Farmiga) recent marriage to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) led to the duo taking a steamship to England at the end of Season 3, Episode 4, 'Marriage is a Gamble.' While Episode 5, 'A Different World' and beyond deal with Gladys’ new role as the Duchess of Buckingham, there is no crossover with Downton in Season 3, despite Downton Abbey being located a travelable 217 miles away from Buckingham Palace.

Still, Fellowes continues to tease the possibility. Before the Season 3 premiere of Gilded Age, he told TV Insider that, “being on different networks puts a problem in the path of that, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

And over at Deadline, Fellowes noted that, “I kept hearing that Downton was going to be connected to The Gilded Age, but the story in Downton starts in 1912.” When prodded about whether Gilded Age, which is currently set in 1883 in Season 3, could introduce Downton ancestors, Fellowes added, “Maybe. We’re not done yet, so we’ll see.”

While Downton’s movie future may be done (though even there, Fellowes isn’t quite so sure), and as of this writing, Gilded Age hasn’t been renewed for Season 4 by HBO (though it likely will be), it’s clear that the speculation from both fans of the two series and Fellowes himself will continue. Could we see young Violet in future seasons of The Gilded Age? Young Cora and/or Cora’s mother (played by Shirley MacLaine on Downton)? Perhaps a young Robert Crawley (who was born in 1865) could stop by to visit the Duke of Buckingham, or vice versa? Or perhaps Gilded Age could employ a time-jump to align with Downton’s 1912 beginnings? Whatever the answer, as Fellowes said, never say never.

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