Julian Fellowes has been saying goodbye to “Downton Abbey” for nearly as long as it has existed. By the fifth season of the series, he’d even grown accustomed to writing more definitive endings, not knowing that there would be a sixth season and three feature films to come.But 15 years after the world first met Violet Crawley, Lord Grantham, Lady Mary, Mr. Carson, John Bates and everyone else upstairs and downstairs at that beautiful estate, the creators are really, truly closing a chapter and saying farewell with “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” which opens in theaters nationwide Friday.“It is sad,” Fellowes said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It’s been a huge chunk of my life. And when I die, I think it’ll probably be the only job anyone remembers. But I hope it’s been happy.”An improbable hit “Downton Abbey,” which was conceived by producer Gareth Neame as a kind of spinoff to “Gosford Park,” was in many ways an improbable hit. In an era of television that celebrated difficult men and…

The movie hit cinemas on September 12 and fans can expect all the elegant drama and emotional goodbyes the franchise has become famous for.

"Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale," takes into account both the past and the present, showing just how each character has grown over the years, and that, truly, the only constant is change.

Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame on why The Grand Finale Is definitely the end of the franchise as we know it — but a reboot can’t be ruled out.