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‘Downton Abbey’ the TV series ended last Christmas after five years on screen – but now the series’s creator and writer Julian Fellowes has strongly hinted that a movie of ‘Downton Abbey’ is on the way – and it could star Maggie Smith, who won an Emmy for her work on the show just last weekend.
Fellowes spoke at a Bafta event in Los Angeles and made clear that a movie was imminent. The writer said: 'I think it will be fun to get everyone together and move it to a larger scale because you have got more money to spend.'
Talk of a film of the hit series is nothing new. But there’s always been a question mark over whether 81-year-old Smith would ever join the cast of ‘Downton Abbey: The Movie’. Smith herself has always been dismissive of the idea of continuing to play her character, the imperious Dowager Countess of Grantham. When the series ended, Smith told 'The Graham Norton Show', ‘By the time we finished, she must have been about 110. It couldn’t go on and on, it just didn’t make sense.’ Norton directly asked Smith if she would appear in a film of the show. ‘I can’t – what age would she be?’
Now Michael Fox, who plays the valet Andy Parker in the series, has strongly suggested both that a movie is happening and it will star Smith after all.
'She elevates it to something else, because she is such a legend and a national treasure,' the 27-year-old actor said at the weekend in LA at the same Bafta event as the one Fellowes attended. ‘It becomes a different show and she puts a stamp on it of quality.'
Rumours are that cameras could roll on ‘Downton Abbey: The Movie’ in 2017. If true, expect the film to be on screens in early 2018.