NEW YORK – The original principal cast of “Downton Abbey” are returning for a second film that will arrive in theatres December 22 this year, Focus Features announced Monday.
“Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes has written the sequel’s screenplay, and Simon Curtis (“My Week With Marilyn”) is directing. Joining the original cast are Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.
Production began last week on “Downton Abbey 2.”
“After a very challenging year with so many of us separated from family and friends, it is a huge comfort to think that better times are ahead and that next Christmas we will be re-united with the much beloved characters of “˜Downton Abbey, ” said producer Gareth Neame.
After a very challenging year with so many of us separated from family and friends, it is a huge comfort to think that better times are ahead and that next Christmas we will be reunited with the much-beloved characters of ‘Downton Abbey,’ said producer Gareth Neame. This image released by Focus Features shows Elizabeth McGovern, left, as Lady Grantham and Hugh Bonneville, as Lord Grantham, in Downton Abbey. (Jaap Buitendijk/Focus Features via AP)
The 2019 film, coming three years after the series ending, made $194.3 million on a modest budget of less than $20 million.
NEW YORK (AP) — The original principal cast of “Downton Abbey” are returning for a second film that will arrive in theaters December 22 this year, Focus Features announced Monday.
Downton Abbey, based on the series of the same name, is getting a sequel, aptly called
Downton Abbey 2.
For those who missed it,
Downton Abbey (the movie) was decidedly less tragic than the series, which included many sudden deaths. Instead it followed the Crawley family and their servants as they prepared for a visit from King George V and Queen Mary. Toward the end of the film (spoiler!), matriarch Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith), discloses that she has an unnamed illness and may die soon…though that could really mean anything, given that the Crawleys don’t seem to age like regular mortals.