Another Downton Abbey Movie is Upon Us

Following some delays due to the COVID pandemic, the latest Downton Abbey movie finally has a release date and a trailer to match. Downton Abbey: A New Era promises to welcome the Crawleys into modern times with some new faces, updated technology, and a new adventure for the aristocratic family.

"It's really a new era," Downton Abbey’s creator Julian Fellowes told People. "The further the '20s went along, the more the world was changing in so many ways. Everything from entertainment to transport was really different by the end of the '20s. That's what we're referring to in that." A New Era will pick up in 1927, where the last movie left off, which showed the estate preparing for a visit from King George V and Queen Mary and the news of Violet Crawley’s illness, leaving her granddaughter, Mary, in charge of the household. According to Fellowes, A New Era will take the storyline of Mary running Downton “further.”

"We're trying to mark the change—the fact that Crawleys of Downton are nearly in the 1930s, which is merely the beginning of the modern world,” he said.

Michelle Dockery and Maggie Smith will return as Mary and Violet Crawley, along with the rest of the main cast in Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael and Jim Carter. They will be joined by some newcomers, including Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.

Downton Abbey: A New Era will open in theaters on March 18, 2022.