“Downton Abbey 2” starts in March with Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey © 2019 Universal Pictures International

Those: Backstage

Article contains spoilers for the first film!

Maggie Smith won two Academy Awards in the 1970s for her performances in The best years of Miss Jean Brodie and The crazy California hotel and as the grande dame of British cinema and theater can look back on more than 60 years of acting. But it’s not her Oscar roles that most of her fans remember, but especially the much later parts than Minerva McGonagall in Harry-PotterSeries and as grumpy Violet Crawley in the British series “Downton Abbey”. Those two roles earned Smith millions of new fans, and in the case of “Downton Abbey” also a Golden Globe and several Emmy awards.

The actress is clearly done with McGonagall, but her role as Dowager Countess of Grantham will soon re-impersonate Smith, although in the first movie too “Downton Abbey” It was suggested that the character could bless the temporal when she told Mary (Michelle Dockery) about her potentially fatal illness. However, producer Gareth Neame has indicated that it doesn’t necessarily mean that Violet will really die and Smith won’t return, because there would have been a few misdiagnoses over the course of the series.

The Downton-AbbeyFilm hit theaters in fall 2019 and grossed nearly $ 200 million worldwide, making a sequel very likely. Fellowes started out with the scripts for his new series “The Gilded Age” busy, but because Corona paralyzed everything, he had more time last year to study the script Downton Abbey 2 that had written last summer and sent to the actors in September. They were apparently quite satisfied, and Universal has officially approved the sequel, so that the shooting is over Downton Abbey 2 expected to begin in March and continue through May. Like all productions nowadays, there will be strict Covid safety precautions, especially for the 86-year-old Maggie Smith, who will have her very own “bubble” when filming and will be isolated so as not to endanger her health.

In addition to Smith, the rest of the regular cast will return, including Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Hugh Bonneville, Penelope Wilton, Allen Leech, Elizabeth McGovern, Matthew Goode, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle and Phyllis Logan. Also the characters from Imelda Staunton (Maud) and Tuppence Middleton (Lucy Smith) are expected to be back in the sequel. It is not yet clear who the new well-known guest stars for whom the series is now known will be. It is also unclear whether Michael Engler, who directed the first film, will return as a director.

Downton Abbey 2 has not yet officially released in theaters but is expected to be released in 2022. We will of course keep you up to date.

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