'Downton Abbey' Season 4 Trailer Released: Only Spoilers American Fans Will Get Until January (VIDEO)
American "Downton Abbey" fans bitter that they have four extra months more than their British counterparts until the return of the period drama, now have a minute long trailer to speculate over while they wait.
After Matthew Crawley's (Dan Stevens) sudden death at the end of last season, an empathetic but emphatic Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) tells her granddaughter Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), she cannot be paralyzed by the tragedy of losing her husband.
"You have a straightforward choice. You must choose either death or life," she says.
Further scenes, showing potential suitor Lord Gillingham (Tom Cullen) making eyes at the widow seem to indicate Lady Mary picks the latter.
The trailer also introduces jazz singer Jack Ross (Gary Carr) who is the first black person on a show, which has had an exclusively white cast through the first three seasons of the show. This comes after "Downton" creator Julian Fellowes had revealed last year that he hoped to "open [the show] up ethnically a bit."
Producer Gareth Neame added that the introduction of Ross will add "interesting twists to the drama."
Unfortunately, beyond Violet's ultimatum in the opening moments of the trailer, the dearth of dialogue clearly shows that the show's masterminds have no desire to share those secrets with viewers. But for American "Downton" fans, this is as close that they'll get to learning anyone's fate until the start of 2014.
