Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Teases a Tremendous Conclusion

As CinemaCon continues, a beloved historical drama comes to an end. Focus Features has unveiled the teaser trailer for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the final chance to experience the Downton Abbey world since its 2010 debut.

What began as a period drama for British broadcast television has spawned six seasons, three films, and the HBO drama The Gilded Age from the same creator, Julian Fellowes. While the original series concluded in 2015, the cast and creatives returned to the fictional Yorkshire estate in 2019 for the feature film Downton Abbey, then again in 2022 for Downton Abbey: A New Era.

What do you mean Downton abbey finale what do you mean these characters don’t just keep on living forever and ever and bringing me immense joy what do you mean the whole thing has to END

— jess (@eponineswifts) March 27, 2025

The teaser trailer was presented to an audience of theater owners for CinemaCon, an annual gathering meant for studios to share updates and sneak peeks of their upcoming releases.

The main cast of the series and the first two films will return for The Grand Finale. Downton Abbey centers around the Crawleys, a wealthy aristocratic English family of the Earl of Grantham who hold the rights to the Downton Abbey estate and their staff of butlers, maids, housekeepers, and all the other positions it takes to keep a household running.

Get me to Gods country pic.twitter.com/xxp4lGbaWH

— Downton Abbey Struggle Tweets (@downtonstruggle) April 1, 2025

The series follows the residents through the historical ups and downs between 1916 and 1926, such as the Titanic, World War I, the Irish War of Independence, and the decline of British aristocracy in the early twentieth century.

Downton Abbey Trailer

Focus Features has kept the teaser trailer for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and plot details for the third film under lock and key so far. But here’s what we do know:

Downton Abbey’s head butler, Charles Cason (Jim Carter), introduces us to the new era of the world with “Welcome to 1930.”

There are a series of shots of the cast in this new period: the Crawley family at the races, Guy Dexter (Dominic West) in the West End of London, and Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) wearing a stunning red dress and ascending a grand staircase. Presumably, the same dress is pictured in the poster.

There is also a portrait of the late Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith), still lovingly framed in the Abbey, the same as at the end of A New Era.

It gives The Grand Finale a dual meaning; not only did fans lose the beloved Duchess at the end of the last film, but this was also one of the late great British acting legends, Maggie Smith, shortly before she passed in 2024. This will be the first Downton Abbey production not to feature her.

To further the film’s theme of bidding things goodbye, there’s a title card, “It’s time to say goodbye,” before we see Earl of Grantham Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) looking around Downton Abbey as if he, too, is bidding a fond farewell to the estate.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale will be released in domestic theaters on September 12.

Stream all things Downton Abbey on Peacock.