Two ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Trailers Just Dropped — And Fans Are Going Wild
Downton Abbey fans are rejoicing as not one, but two different trailers for the feature-length film dropped earlier today, per Entertainment Weekly.
The plot of the movie revolves around a royal visit coming to Downton. Director Michael Engler hinted last year that the film would center around an “event,” and the trailer finally confirmed that the event was a visit by none other than King George and Queen Mary.
“Life is settling into these new realities when this event happens at Downton that brings everybody together. The story line has expanded the scale of it. It takes the things you love about Downton — the romance, the intrigue, the pageantry — and makes it bigger.”
The first trailer was released by Focus Features and opens with familiar scenes from the television series — glasses being polished, a clock being wound, and the bells being rung — set to the iconic soundtrack. The montage ends when Lady Edith greets her family with her daughter and husband in tow, who proclaims that they are “modern folk” in 1927.
The trailer then clips through several scenes before coming to the crux of the trailer: Lord Grantham is handed a letter. He opens it and announces its contents.
“The King and Queen are coming to Downton.”
Lady Mary is in charge of organizing the event but finds herself calling upon the services of Downton’s former butler, Carson.
The second trailer, released by Universal Pictures UK, gives more details about the plot for the servants downstairs. The crew, including Mrs. Padmore, Anna, Bates, and Mrs. Hughes, are angered and insulted as they are pushed aside by the visiting royal staff.
“We need to defend Downton’s honor,” Anna Bates says to the Downton crew — and is immediately seconded by her husband, who agrees that staff should “fight back.”
The second trailer also delves further into a possible romance for Tom Branson, who was left a widow after wife Lady Sybil died during childbirth.
A new movie poster was also released.
In honor of the dual trailer releases, show creator Julian Fellowes answered some fan questions on the official Downton Abbey Twitter, delighting fans of the series.
Fellowes confessed in a tweet that Crawley patriarch Robert Grantham was inspired by his own father after a fan asked him which character he “connected” to the most. Fellowes also added that Violet Grantham, a fan favorite, takes after “those great aunts I was telling you about.”
Fellowes also told fans in another tweet that the Grantham dogs all have Egyptian names, like Isis and Teo, because the real-life family that lives in the Highclere Castle, the Carnarvons, have “a lot of Egyptian artifacts in the house” as a member of the family found the tomb of Tutankhamum.
He also gave insight into the writing process for the new film.
I was excited but also quite daunted. You know they are a different thing – a television series and a movie. You can take stories across different episodes and do all all sorts of things. Whereas in a movie, every story has to be resolved and every character has to have a story. https://t.co/8T4v5ORLpu
— Downton Abbey (@DowntonAbbey) May 21, 2019
The movie is set for release on September 13 in the United Kingdom and September 20 in the United States.
