‘Downton Abbey’ trailer: a royal visit, gay romance and an extra sassy Maggie Smith

The King and Queen are coming to Downton, let the drama ensue.

It’s 1927, just a few years after the end of the television series with all of your favorites returning including Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Laura Carmichael, Penelope Wilton, and Elizabeth McGovern with Imelda Staunton stepping foot into Downton for the first time.

With the arrival of the Royal Family, the house is in a tizzy – both upstairs and downstairs – with Lady Mary (Dockery) having to lure Carson (Jim Carter) back as head butler. We also get a glimpse of Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) in the throes of a romance. And of course, the catty bitings of Violet (Smith) and Isobel Crawley (Wilton).

Over its 6 seasons, the series garnered 3 Golden Globe Awards, 15 Primetime Emmy Awards (69 Emmy nominations in total), making Downton Abbey the most nominated non-US television show in the history of the Emmys – even earning a Special BAFTA award and a Guinness World Record for the highest critically rated TV show along the way.

Focus Features will release Downton Abbey in theaters on September 20th.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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