King Arthur himself, Bradley James, has confirmed that the cast were offered a sixth series of Merlin, but he turned it down.

Speaking in an interview with Digital Spy, James explained: “I felt that I didn’t want to go on past series five and I guess the makers of the show have decided that they don’t want to do it with a new cast.”

“We were asked if we wanted to do a series six, but I’d always had in my mind that we’d kind of gone as far as we could – off the back of the five series – and I’ve always harped on about wanting to leave it on a high. I think that’s what’s been achieved this year.”

He added: “We could’ve stayed on and made a series six and made lots of money, but… I don’t think that’s what you need to be aiming to do in life. You need to be creating good things that entertain people and I’m not sure series six would’ve done that.”

James doesn’t rule out reprising the role for a potential Merlin movie though:

“In a situation like that, if someone came along with a script that really excited me, it would be very difficult to say no. But it would have to be for the right reasons. If we were to do a film… it would have to be worth making.”