The Downton Abbey franchise returns with one final installment, The Grand Finale, this fall, and fans are so gassed up! Who can blame them, considering that the last movie in the series, A New Era, was released in 2022? With the arrival date of the next chapter fast approaching, several of its stars have teased what’s ahead, the most recent being Joanne Froggatt, who has portrayed Anna Bates since the franchise’s birth. For this role, she received three Emmy nods and won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaking with Metro about her latest work in the Paramount+ crime drama MobLand starring Tom Hardy, Froggatt touched on Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, teasing that fans can expect it to bring back the ‘heart of Downton.’ She shared:
“We come to the core of the family and the servants, what the future will be and looking back at where the family have got to now. It’s a beautiful full-circle moment that it comes to at the end.”
Downton Abbey 3 is scheduled to premiere on September 12 and will see the majority of its original cast members return, including some new faces. Some of the other returning stars besides Froggatt include Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Paul Copley, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle and Michael Fox. Furthermore, Paul Giamatti will reprise his role as Harold Levinson from the TV series that ran from September 26, 2010, to December 25, 2015. Meanwhile, new names added to The Grand Finale are Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan.
Michelle Dockery Talks ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’
Earlier this year, while promoting her role in Flight Risk, Dockery also had a few things to s ay about Downton Abbey 3, including describing it as a “real tribute” to the late Dame Maggie Smith. The actress said in an exclusive interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub:
“It’s a beautiful film. For us, it was such a treat to be able to come back together again. It’s a real tribute to Maggie Smith, the film.”
Dockery further recalled the memorable final day of filming, which was pretty emotional for the cast, saying:
“For us, we’ve had so many last times. But this time around, I think we really relished every minute. It being the last, it felt really, really special. Like anything, when something comes to an end, it’s emotional but just such a happy place to be. It’s always been a very happy place to be and a wonderful thing to be part of for the last 15 years.”
The third Downton Abbey movie arrives this September. Stay tuned to Collider for future news ahead of its release.
