The Downton Abbey movie poster reveals the full cast!
It's official! The Dowager Countess and the rest of the Downton Abbey gang are returning, and not just for another series but for an actual Downton Abbey movie. Cripes!
We first heard the exciting news when the ITV show's official Facebook page posted this on 13th July, but here's everything else you need to know about the movie.
Downton Abbey movie posters
In mid-May, this incredible poster was released. It features the full cast, including the Downton dog!
And, a while back, we were given a sneak peak at the cast with these:
Downton Abbey movie plot
At long last, we finally know what the plot of the Downton Abbey movie will be. Thanks to a new trailer, which was debuted to a select few at CinemaCon, we know that the film will centre around the Crawleys getting a visit from the royal family. This includes King George V and Queen Mary, who are the grandparents of our current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
The film is set in 1927, and the family have way less fancy stuff to offer the royals due to the Great Depression at the end of the first World War.
This means they have to bring back their head butler, Carson, to ensure that the royal visit goes swimmingly. But will Carson accept their low wages? Only time will tell...
When did filming start on the Downton Abbey movie?
Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley, posted a photo on Instagram in September 2018, which reveals that the Downton gang were back on set. Hooray!
And...we’re off 🎬@downtonabbey_official
A post shared by Michelle Dockery (@theladydockers) on Sep 10, 2018 at 9:01am PDT
In August 2018 while speaking to Zoe Ball, Phyllis Logan, who played housekeeper Mrs Hughes in the series, said they'd be starting filming "any minute".
"I'm still not even convinced that I can speak about it but I can now. We're all going to be reconvened – I'm going to be back in the corset. It's going to be marvellous. We've had a bit of emailage going on."
She added that she can't actually remember the plot of the film, as it was so long ago that the cast and crew were talking about it.
"We've sort of forgotten," she said. "We got shown one night about a hundred years ago. But yes there's a script. We're going into production any minute now."
Downton Abbey movie release date
Guys! We've got a Downton Abbey movie release date! We can expect the film's release on 13th September 2019!
Downton Abbey movie trailer
Hooray! we finally have a trailer. Well, it's a teaser trailer. But we'll take anything we can get right now, tbh.
Downton Abbey movie cast
As you can see from the poster, most of the cast are returning.
Perhaps more surprising is that Maggie Smith is set to return as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, given that she's previously said a movie could be "squeezing it dry" – although she could still be right - we haven't actually seen the film yet...
One person who sadly won't be starring in the movie is lovely Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley. I mean, he did die, but Phyllis Logan was asked on Loose Women if he would appear in some capacity, like a flashback or as a vision.
DOWNTON ABBEY - THE MOVIE IS OUT IN SEPTEMBER 2019! 🎉🎉🎩🎩🎩🎩 #DowntonAbbey pic.twitter.com/YEEiF1Rtjb
- Loose Women (@loosewomen) November 8, 2018
"He comes back as the ghost of Christmas past," she joked, before the panel suggested he could do a Dallas and appear in the shower. She added, "It was all a horrible nightmare.
"No, sadly, he's still dead."
Bummer...
Also not part of the film is Lily James, who played Lady Rose MacClare.
She recently said: "I'm sadly not [in the film], but I'm so excited for it - I'm going to be front row," she explained, adding that the reason "wasn't schedules".
"My character Rose moved off to New York, so it would be farfetched to bring her back," she explained. "I would have loved to have come back for a scene, but for a movie it can't be like a Christmas special and it needs to be a focused storyline. There was no space for Rose."
If you're a Harry Potter fan (and quite frankly, who isn't?!), you'll be over the moon to hear that on 31st August it was announced that Imelda Staunton aka Professor Umbridge is joining the cast!
Fun fact: Imelda is married to Jim Carter, who plays Downton's Carson!
As well as Imelda, it's been confirmed that Sherlock Holmes' Geraldine James, The Thick Of It's David Haig, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy's Simon Jones, Sense8's Tuppence Middleton, Peaky Blinders' Kate Phillips, and Goodbye Christopher Robin's Stephen Campbell Moore.
Penelope Wilton aka Isobel Crawley has given a small insight into the Downton Abbey film, revealing there's one dramatic scene which involves a lot of the cast at once.
"Hopefully people will enjoy the film..." she told Good Housekeeping UK. "It has some very good set pieces in it, and when I say that there's big scenes with a lot of people involved.
"It's been very nice [to reunite with the cast], and it's been much shorter, so instead of seven months it was nine weeks, and it was very nice to see everyone again."
EXCITING!
Check back here regularly for more updates on the Downton Abbey movie!
('You Might Also Like',)
