A Downton Abbey film sequel may already be the works

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18th Sep 2019

It seems that as soon as the Downton Abbey film hit the big screen worldwide, the cast and crew of the Emmy-winning series and movie adaptation had begun talks about the possibility of a sequel, much to our period drama-loving delight.

With almost the entire cast assembled for the recent Downton Abbey film, despite a four year screen hiatus since the show ended, producer Gareth Neame’s willingness to revisit the Crawley clan’s story for a sequel is a lot stronger than it was a year ago.

While the difficulty of getting the original actors on board for the first silver screen adaptation—once describing the process as “being more complicated than Brexit” to The Hollywood Reporter (THR)—may have been understandably off-putting, now that he’s succeed once, Neame is now well and truly into sequel storyline ideation.

“We’ve got the beginnings of ideas of what we might do next—if that would happen,” he told the publication, and considering the film ended with a number of intentionally unfinished tales, the plot line possibilities for a second film, which will most likely take place in the 1930s, are endless.

Allen Leech, who has played the Earl of Grantham’s widowed son-in-law, Tom Branson, in both the original TV series and the recently released film adaptation, echoed Neame’s sentiment in a recent interview with THR, noting that when the series creator, Julian Fellowes, “looks like he’s finishing a storyline, he’s actually starting one.”

Continuing, Leech himself expressed his own interest—as well as excitement on behalf of the cast—in a second film. “It would be very interesting to see what would happen,” he said. “I think we would all be up for it. It all comes down to how this one does. If people really love it and there really is an appetite, then why wouldn’t we do it?”

Downton’s leading ladies—both on-screen and in the Crawley household—Michelle Dockery and Laura Carmichael, who play Lady Mary and Lady Edith respectively, have also told The Hollywood Reporter that they would “absolutely” be willing to re-enter their individual roles once the sequel becomes a reality.

“We love making the show so I hope people enjoy it. It would be really cool to make another,” said Carmichael. “We want to see if everyone likes this one—but everyone is asking about the sequel!”

Before the Crawley family continue to live on on our screens, cast and producers collectively hope that fans and fresh eyes alike will make the trip to the cinema to see the first film before they can even consider a second film.

“All we have to achieve here is to get the fans out of their homes and buy tickets to go and see it, because people are used to watching at home,” Neame told THR. “You’ve got [to] motivate them to come out and see it in theatres. And if it does really well, then we’d do another one.”

Fellowes is just as cautious, explaining to the same publication: “I just feel I have to wait for the public’s response to the movie and see, did they really like it? Has it gone well? It’s a combination of the [box office, audience buzz] all of it, to be honest, and then you get a picture of whether this movie landed. I think you can get a sense of whether it worked or not. And if we do get that sense, then we will have that conversation.”

But considering it was recently reported that the first film adaption had already brought in around US$12.5 million (approximately AU$18 million) across 17 markets over its opening weekend, our hopes for a Downton Abbey film sequel just got a little stronger.

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