Fifteen years after the aristocratic Crawley family and their pursuant butlers, maids, confidantes and lovers first appeared on British TV screens, Downton Abbey has announced a swan song in the form of a third – and apparently final – film adaptation. A new teaser poster posted on Instagram features long-standing cast member Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley, and has revealed the film’s title and release date: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale will arrive on 12 September 2025.

It has been three years since we last saw Downton on the big screen in Downton Abbey: A New Era, which saw half of the cast transported to the French Riviera of the 1920s for a holiday packed with suitably luxe intrigue, while those left behind at the eponymous country house – famously “played” by Highclere Castle in Yorkshire – encountered a new-fangled Twenties trend in the form of a talkie film shot at Downton. It has been a decade and a half since the premiere of Downton Abbey first aired on ITV in 2010; over the next five years, six series followed which regularly drew more than ten million viewers in the UK alone, while six Emmy wins were testament to the series’ popularity in the USA, too.

Now, in the poster for the upcoming film, which has been written by longtime series creator and period-drama guru Julian Fellowes, Lady Mary walks in crimson evening wear under the vaulted arches of the famous house, as a tagline promises “The time has come to say goodbye.” While A New Era felt like it wrapped some of the characters’ stories up nicely, it always left the door open to a return to Downton; this time, the title suggests that this really will be, finally, the end of the show.

Who is returning for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale?

Alongside Dockery, who is perhaps the best-known cast member and who has been in the show from the very start, several other stalwarts are returning for The Grand Finale. These include Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, who play Lady Mary’s parents, the Earl of Grantham and Lady Cora Crawley respectively, and Laura Carmichael, who plays her sister Lady Edith. Joanne Froggatt will reprise her role downstairs as Anna Bates, as will Jim Carter, who plays the butler Mr Carson. Dominic West will return as closeted film actor Guy Dexter, as will Paul Giamatti as Lady Cora’s brother, Harold Levinson.

The rest of the returning cast includes Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sophie McShera, and Douglas Reith. Meanwhile, The Brutalist’s Alessandro Nivola, Joely Richardson, and stage virtuoso and House of the Dragon actor Simon Russell Beale have all been announced as new additions to the franchise’s cast.

The film will be the first instalment of Downton Abbey not to feature Dame Maggie Smith, who died in September 2024, but whose character Lady Violet had canonically died at the end of A New Era. That film’s director, Simon Curtis, is returning to direct The Grand Finale.

Release date

The Grand Finale’s release date in autumn 2025 was actually announced in June 2025, but we now have confirmation of a specific date: 12 September 2025. Doubtless, as the release date approaches more details will be revealed, including a trailer – watch this space.