Here’s when ‘Downton Abbey’ team hope to start filming movie sequel

The producer of Downton Abbey has revealed when fans can expect a second movie!

Based on ITV’s hit period drama series, the first film was released last month, becoming a huge hit in cinemas around the world.

Since then there has been plenty of speculation about what’s next, including talk about a follow-up series set in the 1970s and a spin-off focusing on Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes.

Given how long it took last time to schedule getting the huge cast all back together at once, we weren’t expecting a sequel to arrive anytime soon.

However, Downton producer Gareth Neame sounds positive that things will come together a bit quicker than expected.

He told Forbes: “…we certainly are going to try to move ahead and hopefully within the next year to two years, we will be making another one.”

The first movie began filming about a year before its release, so it sounds like we can expect our next Downton Abbey adventure to arrive in cinemas in 2021 or 2022.

Neame also gave an update on what stage the production team are at: “We’re still early stages, but we are definitely moving forward with our thinking about what the next story would be, and when we may be able to do it.”

He admitted: “It’s not greenlit, it’s not confirmed, but the movie’s done so well. And I think we and the actors enjoy doing it a lot.”

In the meantime, Julian Fellowes’ latest period drama series Belgravia will premiere in the UK this winter on ITV.

The Downton Abbey movie is available to pre-order on DVD on Amazon.