‘Downton Abbey’ Creator Julian Fellowes Developing Series About the Rothschild Dynasty

While we all doubtless still miss mega-popular period drama Downton Abbey, its creator Julian Fellowes seems to be working hard to fill the Highclere-shaped hole in all our hearts.

There’s The Gilded Age, his NBC new series that will premiere in 2019 and focus on the world of New York business tycoons and the rise of “new money” in late nineteenth century America. Beyond that, it sounds as though Fellowes will focus his attention on telling the story of one of the richest families in history.

According to Deadline, Fellowes is developing another new series called Five Arrows, which will focus on the Rothschild banking dynasty. This ultimate “rags-to-riches” tale follows a family who, in one generation, rose from humble beginnings to amass the largest private fortune the world had ever seen.

Ian Kelly is collaborating on the script with Fellowes for Sky Atlantic, with Jemima Khan attached to produce.

The Rothschild family and their banking businesses powered international high finance during the European industrial revolution, helped build railways across the world, and was directly involved in the independence of Brazil from Portugal, among many, many other things.

So, you know, there’s definitely a lot of potential for drama here. And that’s before we get to the standard period drama staples that Fellowes loves, such as forbidden love and class conflict.

Yeah, we still don’t know what’s up with that Downton Abbey movie exactly, and that’s a shame. But it’s also exciting to see Fellowes moving on to other projects in the genre that brought him such success and viewers such enjoyment.

Plus, you never know. Maybe we’ll get back to Highclere someday. In the meantime, I’m happy to look forward to all this other stuff while I wait.

What do you think of the idea behind Five Arrows? It certainly sounds like it has the potential to be a great story to me…