Downton Abbey 3 can pay homage to the “finish of an period” with the lack of the Dowager Countess, which has now taken on larger significance following the death of Oscar-winning actress Maggie Smith, govt producer Gareth Neame stated.
Talking to TVLine in a latest interview, Neame stated the movie — due in theaters Sept. 12, 2025 — will characteristic the forged and crew’s “large respect for her … come throughout within the subsequent film.” He added, “We are going to by no means see the like of Dame Maggie Smith ever once more.”
“The truth that Dame Maggie herself has now handed away since that point, I do assume, has given an actual added poignancy to a narrative that we’d have deliberate anyway,” the Emmy winner and former BBC exec stated. “The lack of the Dowager, it now feels way more important that you just see actors taking part in characters mourning the household matriarch. However I additionally see actors mourning the matriarch of the present, and it feels extra real and extra significant.”
Focus Features and Common Photos Worldwide’s threequel, from filmmaker Simon Curtis, wrapped capturing over the summer time this yr. Written by Downton creator and Oscar winner Julian Fellowes, producers embody himself, Neame and Emmy Award-winning Liz Trubridge. Starring are Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt and plenty of extra. They have been among the many Downton household that paid tribute to Smith following her dying at 89 on Sept. 27.
The Harry Potter star obtained three Primetime Emmy Awards for her function as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in all six seasons of the wildly standard British interval drama. She reprised the function within the two subsequent movies, together with her character dying in 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Period.
