Not Ready to Say Goodbye to ‘Downton Abbey’? Here, 5 Ways to Keep it Going

It’s right there in the title: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. But is this “finale” truly the end of the Crawley family saga, which, after a rather conclusive TV series finale in 2015, bounced back with three feature films?  

“I don’t think it’s necessarily the end of Downton completely, but I don’t think we’ll see the original cast again,” creator Julian Fellowes tells PEOPLE in a new special edition.  And though much of the cast agree that they’ve exited the Yorkshire manor for the last time, at least one, Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Talbot) will, when pressed, allow that “I don’t think the door is ever really closed on something like Downton because it lives on.”  

From that sliver of hope, here are five suggestions for keeping the lights on at the Abbey, from the completely plausible to the modern day romantasy version I’d really like to see.

A crossover with The Gilded Age

The crossover feels right on the tip of Fellowes’ fountain pen. (I cannot imagine the creator of both these historical gems writes at a computer.) As of the end of season 3 on The Gilded Age, it is 1884 and Gladys Russell is now the Duchess of Buckingham.

Soon, another American, Cora Levinson, will meet Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. Let’s just merge these timelines already and play out the story Downton fans know but never got to see: Robert marries the girl from Ohio so her Levinson money can save his family from ruin — the love came later.

Safe to assume there was someone else of lesser means who had his heart? Love triangles! Rich American expats! And a 40-something version of Cora’s outspoken mom, Martha Levinson (ideally, guest star Michelle Williams in the former Shirley MacLaine role).

A prequel series called Violet: The Victorian Era

This prequel series would follow the future Violet Crawley in her wild youth in Victorian England and abroad: A love affair with Prince Igor Kuragin in pre-revolutionary Russia. Another with the Marquis de Montmirail in the South of France — what exactly did she do to inspire him to leave her a villa in his will? 

In between her cutting jabs, the Dowager Countess dropped so many scandalous hints from her past that this could run for years. Casting? Ella Purnell of Yellowjackets could convince me that she will grow up to be Maggie Smith.

A mid-century spinoff called Downton Abbey: After the War

Mary’s son George, the next Earl of Grantham, would be 18 when Britain entered World War II in 1939. But Fellowes has said that he doesn’t want another wartime season of Downton. 

So let’s say our reboot opens in the early 50s, after the worst of the post-war austerity. George is in his early 30s, single, cutting a swath through society. When we first catch up with him, he’s at the coronation of Elizabeth II. 

Another six-season run takes us to 1960 — the costumes alone make this worthwhile (and then you can rewatch Mad Men). Or maybe he doesn’t make it through the war (sorry, George), setting up an inheritance battle between cousins Marigold, Lady Edith’s out-of-wedlock daughter and Sybbie, the half-Irish socialist former chauffeur’s kid.

Choose your fighter.

Downton Abbey: The Golden Years

Welcome to the ’80s, Ladies! It’s early 1981 and Lady Mary (Julie Andrews — look this is my imaginary casting fantasy, let me have it), Lady Edith (now played by Jane Alexander), their cousin Lady Rose (Julie Walters in the former Lily James role) and the retired-from-service Anna Bates (Leslie Manville in for Joanne Froggatt) are in their thank-you-for-being-a-friend era: Widowed, living together in Dower House, where their middle-age kids don’t stop by nearly enough.

That’s fine because they have new obsessions: Britain’s first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher; Pat Sajak; and that nice Lady Diana Spencer. 

Pamuk!

It is the present day, and the Crawley family has long ago vacated Downton Abbey, which is now on the English Heritage registry and open to the public. But still haunting its stone walls is Kemal Pamuk, the Turkish diplomat who died in Lady Mary’s bed back in season 1.

Now an ageless and dashing spirit (Theo James, reprising the role), Mr. Pamuk has fallen in love with a tour guide (you free for this, Aimee Lou Wood?). She would not normally consider dating a ghost, but her swiping-left social life has been abysmal and… why not give it a go?

For more on Downton Abbey, including cast interviews and exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, PEOPLE’s new special edition Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is available now.