From Vanity Fair
By Julie Miller
When Lady Mary and the Downton Abbey gang return on September 20, they will do so looking more glamorous than ever. At least that is the takeaway from four new character posters, which show Mary (Michelle Dockery), newly lucky-in-love Edith (Laura Carmichael), Andy (Michael C. Fox), and Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) making a few final touch-ups before greeting guests. A tagline, "We've been expecting you," sits at the bottom of each character poster- alluding to the fact that we've been waiting forever for this movie, and perhaps also hinting at the "grand mysterious event" that anchors the film.
As previously reported, the film takes place in the fall of 1927- over a year and a half after the events depicted in the series finale. The event being held at the estate- a Grantham vow renewal? The Dowager Countess' 85th birthday blowout?- is so epic that even Carson (Jim Carter) is called out of palsy-induced retirement to be there. "When this event happens and all hands are needed on deck, [Carson's] called into service, and he becomes part of the success story," director Michael Engler has teased.
And while the cast and crew have been mostly mum about movie details, they have offered a few clues here and there. Speaking to
Entertainment Weekly last December, Dockery confirmed that Lady Mary "embraced her responsibility much more now that she's matured...As much as Mary is very independent, her loyalty remains with Downton...There's a sense of Mary holding it all together."
Engler has also said that Edith may have difficulty adapting to her new rank as marchioness. "It brings with it much more responsibility and protocol than she was raised with at Downton," said Engler. "On one level they're these modern people in their training and expectations, but then, they are in the roles of these very elevated, cultural positions. But don't fear- even Mary and Edith 2.0 will still engage in some deliciously spiky moments of sibling sparring. "They're adults now, so there's certainly an element of softening between them. But there's some fun moments, definitely," said Dockery.
This past October, Allen Leech shared a few more details, revealing that the film is "a big epic story that is definitely going to fill the big screen. That was our worry about taking the show from the small screen to the big screen. But you have [screenwriter and Downton Abbey mastermind] Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for writing, and he's done a great job with the story."
Leech also teased that Tom Branson might finally find love (again). "Look, that was one of my hopes that I had at the end of the series in season 6, and it didn't happen!" Leech joked. "So one would hope that it would happen in the movie."
The cast is rounded out by Hugh Bonneville, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Joanne Froggatt, Matthew Goode, Harry Hadden-Patton, David Haig, Geraldine James, Simon Jones, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Tuppance Middleton, Stephan Campbell Moore, Lesley Nicol, Kate Phillips, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, and Penelope Wilton.
