Gareth Neame, who is the executive producer of Downton Abbey, is explaining why they decided to end the TV show and continue on with three movies.

The third film in the franchise, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, hits theaters in September, and is set to conclude the journey.

Keep reading to find out more…

Gareth said during a recent panel discussion that the TV show would take six months of the year to film, where as the movies have taken 12 weeks.

The actors on the show had “become famous and wanted to do other work,” and “so it was a practical way to keep Downton going” while freeing up the actors’ schedules to pursue other opportunities.

He said he was “always quite optimistic about it, because I felt the TV show was very cinematic anyway, and would work on the big screen.”

“But again, we don’t want to do that forever, either. And we didn’t want for the franchise and for Downton Abbey just to come to an end. We wanted to have proper closure. So for fans of Downton Abbey, the September movie is a full and proper conclusion to the stories of all of those characters,” he added (via Variety).

However, there’s definitely one cast member who won’t be back for the new movie.