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Imelda Staunton, who played Queen Mary’s lady-in-waiting in the first two films, told the BBC that the next movie would be the “final” installment in the long-running franchise.
The Crawleys have endured heartbreak, abandonment at the altar and a burst ulcer. They have celebrated the births of heirs, inter-class marriages and (eventually) a child born out of wedlock. They even hesitantly embraced the advent of new technology like the telephone and moving pictures.
After six seasons on television and two movies, it seems they’re not done yet.
The Crawleys will return for a third — and possibly final — “Downton Abbey” film, one of its stars told BBC Radio 2.
“There will be the final film,” Imelda Staunton, who played Queen Mary’s lady-in-waiting in the first two movies, told the host Zoe Ball on Wednesday, taking long breaths between each word. “There you go.”
Ball said she hoped she hadn’t gotten Staunton in trouble for speaking out of turn.
“I don’t care,” Staunton said.
Focus Features, which distributed the past two films, did not respond to a request for comment. But rumors are already swirling about the plot and potential additions to the cast.
Across six seasons on ITV in Britain and PBS in the United States, Julian Fellowes, who wrote all 52 episodes, swept the tensions of the upstairs-downstairs class struggles into an idyllic escape for viewers. Gossipy zingers. Quiet class warfare. Socialism. Empire waists and beaded dresses. Dame Maggie Smith.
From 2010 to 2015, the “Downton” characters had gone through it all. Or so fans thought. But Fellowes wasn’t done and brought “Downton” to the big screen in 2019, much to the delight of fans.
Set in 1927, the first “Downton” movie followed a royal visit to the Grantham estate. But as Downton’s staff is pitted against the royal attendants, an assassin attempts to kill King George V. Meanwhile, Staunton’s character, Lady Maud Bagshaw, is at the center of an inheritance dispute.
A second movie, “Downton Abbey: New Era” (2022), followed the Crawleys as they welcomed a crew to Downton for the filming of a silent movie. Other members of the family went to the South of France to uncover a mystery.
In a red carpet interview before the “New Era” premiere, Fellowes said that his goal with the first film was to see if there was an appetite for more “Downton” antics, “and I think we established that there was if we could get it right.”
With the second film, as well as with the entire series, his goal was “people to have a good time,” Fellowes said. “I don’t see anything wrong in giving them a nice night out.”
An earlier version of this article misidentified the target of an assassination attempt in the first “Downton Abbey” film. It was King George V, not Queen Mary.
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Remy Tumin is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics. More about Remy Tumin
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