'Downton Abbey' Movie Chatter Picks Up Steam; Is Maggie Smith on Board?
Hold onto your bowler hats: The Downton Abbey movie may finally be happening. At a BAFTA pre-Emmys event on Saturday, actor Michael Fox (who played valet Andy Parker on the British series) told the Daily Mail that the film is moving forward, and that Dame Maggie Smith — who just won her third Emmy for playing the sharp-tongued Dowager Countess — has signed on to reprise her role, though the veteran actress herself has not yet had anything to say on the matter.
“The film without her would still be good with all the other actors, but it puts a stamp of quality with her in it,” Fox said of Smith.
Smith has long been a wild card in the Downton movie talks, having told chat show host Graham Norton that she thought her character would be too old to appear in a film. (“By the time we finished, she must have been about 110. It couldn’t go on and on, it just didn’t make sense,” she said.)
Other signs that a Downton movie may be in our future are adding fuel to the speculation. Since the show’s finale in 2015, creator Julian Fellowes has expressed his desire for a big-screen continuation. Speaking to ELLE at the BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party on Saturday (the same event where Fox reportedly spilled the beans), Fellowes said that he had the movie all mapped out in his mind.
Related: Maggie Smith Gets Last Word Again With Emmy Win for ‘Downton Abbey’ Final Season
“I don’t have much to say about it except that I think that it would be a great idea,” Fellowes said. “I’m just waiting to hear the powers that be give their permission.”
Michelle Dockery, who starred as Lady Mary Crawley, has also been dropping movie hints. Speaking with The Telegraph in August, she said that she saw “potential” for a Downton film, and that it’s something she “would wholeheartedly consider.”
And Joanne Froggatt, who played lady’s maid Anna Smith, told ELLE that the entire cast was pretty much on board. “I’d love to do it. I think everybody would,” she said. “We’re all willing to do it, and willing it to happen…
As long as we can get everyone together, it would be delightful. We’ve talked about it and we’re hopeful that there will be a chance to do it again.”
Maggie Smith flashback: ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’:
