At the end of its presentation, Focus Features showed the first teaser for the next “Downton Abbey” film, which will be called “Downton Abbey: A New Era.”
While the teaser was light on footage, it featured Lord Grantham and the denizens of Downton leaving their famous English home for a grand tour of Europe, with Carson dryly warning, “The British are coming.”
The teaser ended with the Dowager Countess, played once again by Maggie Smith, asking a movie star if there really is such a thing as good publicity.
After running for six seasons on PBS, “Downton Abbey” made the leap to the big screen in 2019 and grossed $96 million in the U.S. — an all-time record for Focus Features — and $194 million worldwide. The film featured the Crawleys preparing for a royal visit from King George V. As with that film, the entire original cast of the TV series will return, along with Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.
“Downton Abbey: A New Era” hits theaters on March 18.