'Downton Abbey' Movie Release Date News: Anna Bates Actress Says 'Nothing Has Happened'
Joanne Froggatt is most known for her character, Anna Bates, on "Downton Abbey." Since the show ended, however, she has been in different television series and like the rest of "Downton Abbey" fans, she is also waiting on word about the reunion movie.
While promoting her recent show, "Liar," Froggatt dished on the status of the planned "Downton Abbey" movie. Speaking with Variety, the actress revealed she has no idea when filming will start despite creator Julian Fellowes saying he hs been working on the movie's script.
"There's been talk, there's been conversations, but nothing has happened," Froggatt said. "We're all sort of leaving it up to the gods. We have no information."
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In June, NBCUniversal International Studios president Michael Edelstein confirmed that a movie is in the works. The studio is hoping to round up the show's ensemble for filming by 2018.
But Fellowes said he might be doing a prequel to "Downton Abbey," which would feature a younger cast. His idea will center on the courtship of Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) in the late 1800s, which would likely mean that the television series' stars like Froggatt won't be needed in the movie.
Other potential options would be to switch to two different time periods so that the cast can still be reunited. Fellowes, after all, also said he wishes to explore "Downton Abbey" during the brink of the Second World War. Such a scenario, however, will likely no longer feature Dame Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley), the show's oldest character.
"Honestly, she was about — by the time we're through — she must've been 110," Smith remarked while appearing on Graham Norton's talk show in 2016. "So, I couldn't go on and on and on. It just didn't make sense."
"Downton Abbey" premiered in 2010. The period drama about British aristocrats and their helpers was honored in the Guinness Book of Records as the most critically acclaimed English series.
