Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has addressed Dan Stevens's rumoured exit from the series.

Stevens - who plays Matthew Crawley on the hit period drama - will reportedly depart Downton in 2013 following the fourth series premiere.

"Sometimes actors feel they want to move on," Fellowes told Entertainment Weekly. "Initially, for the first two or three [seasons] you can contract them, but after that, every season, you have to re-contract them.

He added: "If they don't want to come back, there's nothing we can do."

However, Fellowes insisted that he will not recast the role of Matthew should Stevens ultimately opt to quit Downton.

"I can't see us doing that," said the Oscar-winning writer.

Fellowes also claimed that the recently-confirmed fourth series of Downton Abbey will likely pick up soon after the events of series three's finale.

"I think we'll go on jogging quite happily through the '20s," he revealed. "You know there's always a little time jump. We did two years between [seasons] one and two because we only wanted to spend two years in the war so we had to start halfway through the war. Now we don't have those imperatives."

Downton Abbey will return to ITV1 this Christmas for a festive special, with the full fourth series following next year. In the US, the third run will debut on PBS on January 6.

【英剧快讯】热门英剧《唐顿庄园》已经获得了第四季预定，但关于饰演剧中重要角色Matthew Crawley 的演员丹·史蒂文斯退出传闻一直喧嚣尘上。近日该剧的编剧朱利安·费罗斯在访谈中就谈到了这个问题。

朱利安·费罗斯表示，就算丹·史蒂文斯真的退出该剧，他也不打算换角色，找其他的演员来饰演Matthew 这一角色。此外他还证实第四季不会发生太大的时间跳跃。

此外，英国国宝级演员玛吉·史密斯（Maggie Smith）在《唐顿庄园》中饰演老爵爷遗孀的角色，此前一直有传闻称玛吉·史密斯会因为身体状况退出，但朱利安·费罗斯承诺：无论玛吉·史密斯去留，她的角色永远不会被“写死”。

《唐顿庄园》将在12月25日圣诞节当天播出2小时的圣诞特集。