No one asked for another ‘Downton Abbey’ movie but we’re getting one anyway

According to a report published in RadioTimes, during a BBC Radio 2 interview this week, Imelda Staunton said a third and final “Downton Abbey” film is in the works.

I had forgotten, or maybe not been aware in the first place, that Imelda Staunton was in “Downton Abbey.” She is best known on this side of the pond for her role as Dolores Umbridge in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and Queen Elizabeth II in the final two seasons of “The Crown.” According to IMDb, she played Maud Bagshaw in “Downton Abbey.”

I’m sorry, who? Maud Bagshaw sounds like a name one would come up with if they wanted a character to sound fake, and again, I never saw this character during the few seasons I watched the TV show, and if she was in the most recent movie, I have no recollection of it.

All that is to say, I’m not convinced Staunton is actually part of the “Downton Abbey” cinematic universe, and I’m even less convinced that she’s authorized to speak on plans for future film releases. But the statement is being treated as an official announcement across the media spectrum, so I guess it is actually happening.

For the uninitiated, “Downton Abbey” aired on ITV in the U.K. and PBS in the United States. The series ran for six seasons, from 2010 to 2015, and featured fictional British aristocrats, the Crawley family, and the servants who lived and worked in their home from 1912 to 1926.

I was a devoted watcher for the first three seasons of the series. I was deeply invested in the storylines of the Crawley family and their servants. But I got a bit of “Downton Abbey” fatigue by the end of the third season after a number of beloved characters were killed off, so I missed the final few seasons and assumed my relationship with the Crawley family was over forever.

In 2019, the first “Downton Abbey” movie premiered. I did not see it because I thought, foolishly, that I may have missed some important plot points from the final few seasons. But when I saw “Downton Abbey: A New Era” in 2022, I realized the plot of the “Downton Abbey” movies could not matter less.

I went to see “Downton Abbey: A New Era” on a weeknight when I honestly just needed some alone time. I sat in the back of an empty theater with my popcorn and drink and had a wonderful time watching the Crawley family be wealthy and ridiculous while their servants follow antiquated etiquette. Unlike the series, there was no real tension during any point of the movie, and I never felt anything other than pleasantly amused. The plot, so much as there was one, featured one character learning she owned a villa in France, and another character saving a film production shot on their property by offering to do a voiceover.

Absolutely nothing of significance happened in “Downton Abbey: A New Era” until the last 15 minutes of the film when (spoiler alert) Maggie Smith’s character — Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham — died surrounded by her loving family, which felt like a fond farewell. And I thought that was a great way to end “Downton Abbey” once and for all. But the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, just can’t seem to leave it alone. Which is perfectly fine by me, because sometimes I need some incredibly low-stakes entertainment.

One of Fellowes’ most recent endeavors is the HBO series “The Gilded Age,” which features wealthy characters navigating the social hierarchy of turn-of-the-century New York society. I once described the show as silly, absurdly low stakes and completely unnecessary, but a welcome respite for an overloaded brain. Which is exactly what I expect from the third “Downton Abbey” movie, which reportedly will begin filming later this year.

I have every intention of paying good money to see it the weekend it’s released, sitting in the back with my popcorn and and large soda, and enjoying the brain rest while watching aristocrats do wealthy people things for an hour and a half.

And I’ll be delighted to find out who — or if — Imelda Staunton is in the Crawley home.