Downton Abbey 3 trailer’s huge plot twist reveals why Matthew Goode character is absent
Meanwhile, we also get a glimpse of some of the stars joining the cast – including a dashing new character played by Alessandro Nivola and the return of Paul Giamatti as Harold Levinson, who was last seen in the 2013 Christmas special.
You can watch the full trailer below – it certainly promises a sweeping conclusion to the long-running saga.
Goode – who was also missing from the second film – previously told Radio Times magazine that it was probably a “good thing” that he wouldn’t be reprising his role as Henry in the film.
He revealed: “I was unavailable for the second because I was doing The Offer. Then [for the third] I was shooting this [Netflix series Dept. Q]. But I also buggered my knee, and I had to have an operation.
“That takes weeks to get over, so I was never going to be able to do it. And let’s face it, he was edging towards becoming a bit of a wet lettuce. So maybe it’s a good thing.”
Later, he clarified those comments in an interview with Metro, claiming that he didn’t mean them “in a horribly derogatory way”.
He explained: “I just meant, actually, wouldn’t it be more exciting if [Lady Mary] didn’t need a man so she might end up on her own? Some people look up to her as a modern feminist or a pillar of modern feminism.”
Goode had starred in the original Downton Abbey TV series in seasons 5 and 6, and also went on to star in the first film in 2019.
He previously revealed that the original intention was for him to appear in the upcoming finale, but that he would only have been in “a half-a-page scene” – during the “big racecourse day” sequence, which can be seen in the previous trailer for the film.
He added that he spoke with Lady Mary star Michelle Dockery “at length” about how the scene could possibly go, and that they were “going to try and ask for a slight rewrite”, but “eventually it was just that [the film was] moving ahead” without him.
