New ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Teasers & The Status Of Your Favorite Characters
Until now, the cast of the Downton Abbey movie has been rather stingy with details about the next chapter of the Crawley family in their beloved great house, but with the release of a few still photos, Michelle Dockery, aka Lady Mary, is spilling the beans with a few hints about the status of your favorite characters.
The last time we saw the Crawley family and their downstairs staff, it was New Year’s Day, 1926. Many of the storylines seemed to be tied up neatly, but as Downton fans know, time goes on and tragedy and triumph lie right around the corner set against the timeline of known world history.
Entertainment Weekly says that when we next see the Downton Abbey gang, it will be the autumn of 1927. Dockery says that Mary has transformed from “entitled heiress” to a working woman overseeing the future of her family property in the same way her father Robert did in the original series. In other words, she has become the lynchpin of the operation.
“She’s embraced her responsibility much more now as she’s matured. As much as Mary is very independent, her loyalty always remains with Downton…There’s a sense of Mary holding it all together.”
When we catch up with Mary again, she’s now a mother for the second time and seemingly in a good place with her second husband Henry Talbot. For the first time since we’ve met the oldest daughter of the Crawley family, Mary isn’t desperate.
“What you see is her for once being settled. They’re very supportive of one another and they’re good friends. It’s nice to see Mary in that way as opposed to being in constant turmoil about her love life.”
But Dockery added that if fans think time and a leap in status will totally change the dynamic between Mary and Edith, they would be wrong because the sibling rivalry is alive and well.
“They’re adults now, so there’s certainly an element of softening between them, but there’s still some fun moments definitely.”
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Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) also weighs in to say that the days of the long-suffering Edith are over, but she has new challenges that involve a bigger step up than she imagined in her social strata, and her husband Bertie is the seventh Marquess of Hexham.
The two of them are adapting to being a married couple and to her being a lady of one of these great houses. It brings much more responsibility and protocol than what she was raised with at Downton. On one level, they’re these modern people in their training and expectations, but then again, they are in the roles of these “very elevated, cultural positions.”
Lastly, Downton fans get a glimpse into the life of Tom Branson, the favorite underdog, who has returned from America to work side by side with Henry Talbot. This was hinted at by Allen Leech, who has played the character since he was the Irish Socialist chauffeur to the family.
“The world [is] changing in a way that Tom Branson had always hoped. As it picks up again, it’s definitely becoming a world that Tom Branson is much more suited to than a lot of the Crawley family.”
While Leech was unwilling to share details, he hinted that there is a chance that Branson will finally find love, considering he has been alone since Sybil died.
The Downton Abbey movie will be released exclusively in theaters in 2019.
