On September 27, 2024, Maggie Smith died at the age of 89, after an immense career as an actress in theater and cinema. Known in particular for her character of Professor McGonagall in the saga Harry Pottershe also found immense success playing Countess Violet Crawley in the series Dowtown Abbeyalso adapted twice for cinema.
While a third and final feature film is expected on September 12, 2025, one of the executive producers of Downtown Abbey made a promise to fans of the show.
When Maggie Smith wasn’t looking Downtown Abbey
Broadcast between 2010 and 2015, the series Dowtown Abbey tells the story of a fictional English aristocracy family, the Crawleys, living with their servants in a castle located in Yorkshire. Maggie Smith plays the Countess and Grandmother Violet Crawley. In the first film, released in 2019, four years after the end of the series, she tries to save an inheritance for the benefit of her son, Lord Crawley, but discovers a well-buried family secret.
Rewarded for this role with two Emmy Awards in 2011 and 2012, Maggie Smith did not, however, never watched the series. Questioned in 2013 by a journalist from CBS who asked her if she was proud of the success of the series, she answered frankly: “I didn’t really see her. I don’t sit down and watch it.” However, she said she was “proud” and “happy” with the success of the program.
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A beautiful tribute planned
Warning, spoilers if you haven’t watched the second film. Released in 2022, Downtown Abbey: A new era ended with a tragedy: that of the death of Lady Violet Crawley. A death which explains her absence from the final feature film, shot between May and August 2024. Unfortunately, reality joined fiction with the death of the British actress, making this absence much more painful.
Asked by TV Line on December 24, 2024, the executive producer of Downtown Abbey explained that the third film would pay tribute to Maggie Smith. “The fact that Dame Maggie herself has since passed away, I think, gave greater weight to a story that we would have planned anyway,” he said. “The immense respect that the actors and the team have for her will be felt in the next film“.
He continued: “The loss of the Dowager is now much more meaningful when we see actors playing characters grieving the matriarch of the family. But I also see actors mourning the matriarch of the show, and it seems more authentic and more meaningful. No synopsis has been revealed yet.
