What’s new for Downton Abbey Season 5?? (Spoiler alert!)

I’ve been scouring the Internet this morning (avoiding yard work, if you must know), looking for hints of what we can expect in Season 5. Here’s what I’ve found:

Lady Rose (actress Lily James) will be leaving the show after Season 5—mostly. Because she is such a favorite of DA creator Julian Fellowes, he’s not killing her off. Or maybe she’s staying because he’s exhausted all the conceivable ways a character can meet her or his demise? Casualties of war, the Titanic, a car crash, childbirth; suicide by poisoned pie; death by natural causes, influenza, being pushed in front of a bus by Mr. Bates (but we think the victim deserved it, so we don’t care). What possible fate could he offer Lady Rose? She’ll be in the final episode of Season 6 and in Season 7. In the meantime, Ms. James is going to Walt Disney Pictures to play Cinderella (won’t she be perfect?).

It will be interesting to see how Mr. Fellowes removes her from the plot. I’m hoping it’ll be done with her commitment to some worthy cause; that her interest in American jazz singer Jack Ross wasn’t solely to shock her elders. I’d like to see her character mature into someone with groundbreaking, noble ideals.

Lily James absence will leave an opening for a 20-something-year-old actress. I haven’t heard from Mr. Fellowes about my suggestion to cast Sandra Bullock and John Hamm (of Mad Men fame) as the wealthy American owners of Haxby Hall. But may I amend it to include a feisty daughter, played by Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook)?

Other tidbits I’ve dug up? Richard E. Grant (Girls, Gosford Park) guest stars as art historian Simon Bricker, friend of the Granthams. (Will they be forced to sell paintings to keep Downton afloat? Not that one of Charles I in the dining room, please!) Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and a Funeral) has a guest role as Lady Anstruther, and Rade Serbedzija (24) will play a Russian refugee. Plus, wireless (i.e., radio) comes to the Abbey.

That’s it for now. I understand that there is a trailer for Season 5. I promise you I’ll be relentless in my search for it and will post a link as soon as I find it.