The end is nigh, fellow "Downton Abbey" guests. After Season 6, there will be no more arch comments from Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess to tide us over, and no more opportunities to seethe as smug Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) takes another shot at poor Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael). (#TeamEdith4Life. Not sorry.) Season 6 premieres in the U.K. first, then in January on PBS in the U.S. Creator/writer Julian Fellowes talked to TheWrap about the new season, explaining why they decided to end the show in the 1920s instead of jumping into the 1930s, and discussing the major theme of the final season.

Here's part of that Q&A:

What were your priorities going into this past season?
Well, Season 4 was about Mary's redemption. That series was really about personal choice, about watching Mary decide to come alive again after her husband's death. Series 5, you're right, was much more to do with the fact that change was going to overtake them. And in Series 6, I would say, the theme is resolution.

Now, you can have different degrees of conclusion. In some stories, something can happen, that's the end of the story and everyone's either happy or unhappy. In other stories, you can suggest that in the afterlife of these characters, when they are only in the ether, this will work and this probably won't.

I don't think everything has to be tied up, but I think there are main themes that have to be tied up. I mean, I want you to finish the last episode feeling contented, and not feeling cheated. Sometimes in a movie the clever twist at the end just leaves you feeling cheated, and I don't want that."

So the theme is "resolution," which makes sense, and it sounds like he does want to resolve things, instead of dangling a lot of loose ends that leave us unsatisfied (like so many other series finales). He wants us to leave "feeling contented" and not "cheated." Dare we say a happy ending is coming?

Speaking of happy news, it looks like both Matthew Goode and Allan Leech are returning in Season 6. Matthew's Henry Talbot seems like Mary's potential long-term match and it'll be nice to see Tom Branson back, since it looked like he was leaving for America, aka leaving the show for good.

Are you excited for Season 6? Sad that it's ending? Frustrated that we have to wait until January?

Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.