Expected on March 16 in our theaters, “Downton Abbey II: A New Era” will introduce us to a handful of new characters. And some will obviously add a little Hollywood touch to the Crawleys.
We thought it was over with the broadcast of the very last episode of the series at the end of 2015. But the Downton Abbey adventure continued in the cinema from 2019 with a sequel in the form of a feature film that looks like an epilogue.
Except that the some 238 million dollars collected at the global box office (including nearly 100 in the United States alone) undoubtedly made creator Julian Fellowes think, who was quick to put the cover back.
Expected on March 16 in our theaters, Downton Abbey II: A New Era, will once again summon all the characters and members of the Crawley family, including the brilliant Violet, still played by Maggie Smith. There will also be a few newcomers from France (played by Nathalie Baye and Jonathan Zaccaï) and the United States. From the west coast specifically.
Thanks to Elizabeth McGovern, interpreter of Cora Crawley, in an interview given to DailyMail, we indeed know the identity of the characters embodied by Laura Haddock, Dominic West and Hugh Dancy. Namely, respectively: the silent star Myrna Dalgleish, a Hollywood actor and a director, who came to shoot a talkie on the spot while the cinema changes dimension with the arrival of sound.
Directed by Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn), who succeeds Michael Engler behind the camera, the feature film will indeed take place in 1928, a pivotal year for cinema since it is from there that the films are made to speak.
The irruption of Hollywood to the Crawleys can therefore explain all these spotlights that we see on the teaser poster, and make it possible to find a new way of confronting the old and the new world, one of the central themes of Downton Abbey.
Universal Pictures Laura Haddock and Michael Fox
Still written by Julian Fellowes, this sequel will not be easy for the main characters who, in addition to this filming, will also have to manage an inheritance which takes them to the South of France, and a visit from the King and Queen of England. What offer us a film richer in events than any of the seasons of the series.