Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Arts & Culture

'Downton Abbey' Cast Returns For Sequel Opening In December

A still of Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, James Fox, Paul Giamatti, Penelope Wilton, Allen Leech, Robert James-Collier, Michelle Dockery, Ed Speleers, Laura Carmichael, and Lily James in "Downton Abbey" (2010).
Masterpiece Theatre
A still of Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, James Fox, Paul Giamatti, Penelope Wilton, Allen Leech, Robert James-Collier, Michelle Dockery, Ed Speleers, Laura Carmichael, and Lily James in "Downton Abbey" (2010).

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" creator Julian Fellowes has written the sequel's screenplay, and Simon Curtis ("My Week With Marilyn") is directing. Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and 86-year-old Maggie Smith will all be back, along with some new faces, including Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.

Production began last week on “Downton Abbey 2.”

Advertisement

“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.

The 2019 film, coming three years after the series ending, made $194.3 million on a modest budget of less than $20 million.