Dan Stevens Plans to Watch New Season of DOWNTON ABBEY Along with U.S. Audiences

Dan Stevens, whose Downton Abbey character Matthew Crawley was killed off in a car accident during the final moments of last year's Christmas episode, plans to watch the upcoming fourth season of the show along with American audiences.

The highly popular historic drama will return to PBS this Sunday, January 5th and Stevens is anxious to see how his fictional wife, Lady Mary, is coping with her new life as a widowed, single mother. "I have absolutely no idea what becomes of Mary," Stevens tells The Hollywood Reporter, "because I want to watch it with the American audience -- it will be fun. After all, I live in Brooklyn now."

The actor is currently shooting the upcoming "Night at the Museum 3," as well writing fiction for the blog TheJunket.org. His latest film, 'The Guest' will run at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Stevens made his Broadway debut in last year's 'The Heiress,' opposite Jessica Chastain. He was recently seen in the British independent film Summer, in which he stars alongside Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning and which he also executive-produced and Amy Heckerling's Vamps with Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter and Sigourney Weaver.

Stevens' other stage credits include the lead role of "Septimus Hodge" in David Leveaux's hit West End production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and the "Doctor" in Tom Stoppard and André Previn's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at The National Theatre. He has worked frequently with Sir Peter Hall on productions including The Vortex (West End), Hay Fever (Haymarket Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It, which wowed audiences in London, New York and Los Angeles, and earned him an Ian Charleson Award nomination which is the British theatrical award to reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30.

Photo courtesy of PBS