It’s going to be some time before we finally get to Season 4 of The Gilded Age, which we’ll eventually be able to watch with an HBO Max subscription. As I think about where the story could go, I keep coming back to one of my favorite characters: Ward McAllister. The partner-in-crime to society’s alpha figure, Mrs. Astor, is one of only a handful of characters on the show who are based on real people, and for McAllister, played by Nathan Lane, he has reached the end of the line, based on real history. Could this be the end of him on the show, too?
The Real McAllister Did Write A Controversial Book
Towards the end of the dramatic Season 3 of the show, we learn that McAllister has published a best-selling book that reveals all the gossip and secrets of New York society, leading to his shunning by it, and the end of his friendship with Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy). This really did happen. In 1890, McAllister wrote Society as I Have Found It, and, as the show explains, he held little back. Though he refrained from using real names in the book, it didn’t matter; everyone knew who he was talking about.
Once shunned, he doubled down and, in 1893, in a copy of the book that he had donated to the New York Historical Society in 1890, he wrote all the real names in the margins, identifying who he was speaking of. Whatever was left of his reputation was obliterated at that point. He continued to operate on the outskirts of society, and he continued to be a gabby gossip columnist of sorts for newspapers (he famously caused a row between New York City and Chicago in 1893 over the World’s Fair in the Windy City), but within the Gilded Age society, he was done.
What Does All This Mean For The Future Of The Character?
In July, HBO announced that there will be a Season 4 of the popular show. My question now is, will McAllister be a part of it? We don’t know which cast members are definitely returning, and although Nathan Lane has never been part of the main cast, he has had a recurring role since the show's inception. Now that seems very much in doubt.
McAllister’s book has been published, he’s been shunned by everyone, and in his final scene of the season, he argues with Mrs. Astor, who remains steadfast in her decision to keep him out of all the best parties and clubs. He is persona non grata to his “Mystic Rose” and the rest of “The 400” (a designation he coined in real life).
It would be a shame to lose the character, as Lane is simply fantastic as the foppish Southern-turned-New York tastemaker. Maybe we’ll get something about his snobby feelings about Chicago and its hosting of the 1893 World’s Fair, as happened in real life, but I can’t see McAllister playing much more of a small role at most, and for that, I’m sad. In the meantime, I’m glad we have a new Downton Abbey movie to look forward to this month as part of the 2025 movie schedule.
