Followers of the Downton Abbey franchise are anticipating the third movie within the collection arriving within the later innings of the upcoming 2025 motion pictures schedule. After all, a giant query has been hanging over the movie, because the late Dame Maggie Smith’s passing will undoubtedly shade the challenge’s manufacturing in a sure means. As a preferred character who acted because the glue for the franchise, and the household inside it, a particular tribute would appear to be within the making – and there are some early particulars of precisely how that’s going to occur.
Downton govt producer Gareth Neame was readily available in an interview with TVLine to advertise his newest collection, the Peacock streaming hit The Day of the Jackal. So in fact, he was requested for any info he might present on the threequel, set to debut in theaters September 2025. However as Neame revealed in his remarks, Dame Maggie Smith’s passing has influenced the manufacturing in a means that didn’t have to change the story:
The truth that Dame Maggie herself has now handed away since that point, I do suppose, has given an actual added poignancy to a narrative that we’d have deliberate anyway. The lack of the Dowager, it now feels much more vital that you simply see actors enjoying characters mourning the household matriarch. However I additionally see actors mourning the matriarch of the present, and it feels extra real and extra significant.
Downton Abbey: A New Period’s bittersweet ending noticed Dowager Countess Violet Crawley passing away surrounded by her household, so the desk was already set for the remainder of the forged to mourn her presence. Sadly, what began as a narrative commemorating the demise of a popular culture icon has now grow to be a car for precise grief to be expressed.
Although as Gareth Neame identified, the silver lining is that actual life circumstances have now made a logical plot determination extra significant in its execution. With forged members like Penelope Wilton sharing comedic Dame Maggie Smith anecdotes in earlier promotional excursions, it’s nonetheless sort of exhausting to think about the lady with probably the most acidic tongue of the lot now not being current.
It additionally appears that Downton Abbey movie co-star Imelda Staunton’s claims concerning the trilogy capping installment may be true in any case. With whispers persevering with to flow into that Downton Abbey 3 is in truth the ultimate chapter, it does look like it might be a correct time to shut the guide on this long-running hit. Though who is aware of the place the subsequent stroke of inspiration might come from, permitting Gareth Neame and collection creator/author Julian Fellowes to determine the subsequent transfer for the Crawley household.
Downton Abbey 3 is ready to take its place in theaters on September 12, 2025. Whereas we’ll have to attend for extra particulars, like a correct title, you possibly can watch the complete Downton legacy by entry to a Peacock subscription, That additionally consists of the just lately re-added Downton Abbey: A New Period, which could really feel a bit extra significant being watched now after dropping the venerable Dame Maggie Smith.