4 Years Later, The Gilded Age Finally No Longer Needs The One Thing Fans Have Asked For

Published Nov 10, 2026, 5:00 PM EST Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Even though fans spent four years looking for one thing from The Gilded Age, the HBO hit has finally proven that this request is irrelevant in its fourth outing. The Gilded Age has consistently been met with stellar reviews since the show debuted in 2022, and this is a pretty impressive achievement given the stiff competition the costume drama faces on streaming and cable TV. While Netflix’s raunchy Bridgerton franchise has as much in common with Prime Video’s romance novel adaptation Off Campus as it does with Julian Fellowes’ historical drama, The Gilded Age still inevitably faced comparisons to the sexier, sillier hit when the show debuted. Indeed, between Apple TV’s loose Edith Wharton adaptation The Buccaneers, My Lady Jane, and Sanditon, there was a string of period dramas that upped the raunch quotient shortly before The Gilded Age arrived. However, none of these were the one show that truly plagued The Gilded Age most early in its run. Since creator Julian Fellowes was best known for the British period drama Downton Abbey, fans and critics alike spent years asking when The Gilded Age would finally cross over with this earlier six-season, three-movie hit. 2026’s The Gilded Age season 4 marks the first year where there is no one asking for a Downton Abbey crossover, and for good reason. After 4 Seasons, The Gilded Age No Longer Needs A Downton Abbey Crossover Image via HBO There’s been no press about a potential canon crossover between The Gilded Age season 4 and Downton Abbey, and no mention of this possibility in the show’s publicity materials, since there is no need for this anymore. Season 3 was a ratings smash, and The Gilded Age’s ratings are still setting records in season 4. This proves that time has turned The Gilded Age into a cultural phenomenon in its own right worldwide. When The Gilded Age began, the Downton Abbey franchise was in a funny position. The original show, which was a massive worldwide hit, ended its run in 2015, but interest in the franchise was revived by a hit movie of the same name in 2019. The first sequel, A New Era, was released in 2022, earning $97 million and gaining largely positive reviews. As such, it was hardly shocking that Downton Abbey’s potential links to The Gilded Age were a hot topic of conversation when season 1 arrived on HBO later that year. To make matters worse for Fellowes, the two shows not only take place in the same historical era, but also both concern characters from the same rarefied social classes, meaning a crossover would be easily justified in-universe. The Gilded Age Created Its Own Version Of Downton Abbey Image via MovieStillsDB However, things have changed considerably since then. Although 2025’s Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale earned positive reviews and over $100 million at the box office, the outing still marked a definitive, nostalgic final bow for the franchise. Thus, The Gilded Age isn’t compared to the earlier international hit as a lesser-known upstart show anymore. Furthermore, as if to underline this point in-universe, The Gilded Age even introduced an alternative family of notable British aristocrats to take the place of a potential Downton Abbey crossover. The Buckinghams from England function much like the heroes of the earlier show, and Fellowes has never definitively stated that Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age are set in the same universe, meaning a crossover might not even make sense. By introducing the Buckinghams to the world of The Gilded Age, Fellowes made it clearer than ever that the show can stand on its own merits without comparison to Downton Abbey. As The Gilded Age season 4 goes from strength to strength, the decision to avoid undercutting the HBO show's appeal with an unnecessary Downton Abbey cameo early on has paid off handsomely. Release Date January 24, 2022 Network HBO Max Showrunner Julian Fellowes Cast Morgan Spector George Russell Directors Deborah Kampmeier, Salli Richardson-Whitfield Writers Julian Fellowes