Downton Abbey Graduates: What's Next for the Cast?
While we may never again see the Dowager launch a new zinger or Lady Mary raise a fresh eyebrow, we can look forward to seeing Downton's talented and hardworking cast for many years to come. Find out what's next for Downton Abbey's cast members, where you can see them, and how far their new roles are speculated to take them from their Downton Abbey characters.
Michelle Dockery
If Lady Mary's Liverpool assignation were a regular and casual event, conducted between cons, thefts, and prison stints, she might be closer to Michelle Dockery's next character, Letty Dobesh, the protagonist of the TNT series Good Behavior. Letty is contemporary, she's American, and she's a train wreck … How un-Mary, how vulgar!
Departure from Downton: 100%
Joanne Froggatt
She stole the hearts of millions of viewers as Lady Mary's loving and resilient lady's maid, Anna. Next up, she stars as infamous Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton, dispensing death from the spout of her teapot in the spine-tingling drama Dark Angel, coming to Masterpiece. From Downton's angel to angel of death, Froggatt does a 180 and shows us the breadth of her chops!
Departure from Downton: 100%
Hugh Bonneville
Hugh Bonneville may have left Downton behind, but he's not straying far from the aristocracy in his portrayal of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy in India, in the upcoming feature film Viceroy's House. While the film is set in India in 1947, and Bonneville's character is an historical figure, it does involve both a house and a turbulent historical backdrop.
Departure from Downton: 50%
Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith follows up her iconic role as Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess in the biographical feature film,The Lady in the Van. She plays Mary Shepherd, a homeless woman who, for 15 years, parks her van in the driveway of real-life playwright Alan Bennett, returning to the character she portrayed on the London stage. While Violet and Mary couldn't be more opposite in both their residences or refinements, the characters share one quality: both are forces of nature!
Departure from Downton: 95%
Laura Carmichael
Fans can look for Laura Carmichael in the feature film A United Kingdom, which is due to start shooting soon. Set in the 1940s, A United Kingdom is based on the true story of the future king (David Oyelowo) of Bechuanaland — formerly the British colony Botswana — and his marriage to a white British woman, Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike). Carmichael will play her sister, Muriel. The sibling of a marrying sister? There's an Edith connection after all!
Departure from Downton: 70%
Allen Leech
After feature film success in The Imitation Game, Leech is slated to head back to the big screen in Hunter's Prayer, an action-thriller based on a novel by Kevin Wignall, "For the Dogs." Leech goes from socialist to scoundrel as the boss of a hit man gone rogue.
Departure from Downton: 100%
Penelope Wilton
Wilton makes the leap from the small screen to the big screen in Steven Spielberg's upcoming children's movie The BFG, based on the book by Roald Dahl and starring Masterpiece alum Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall). She'll play the Queen of England, which is certainly a change from the wonderfully class-blind Isobel Crawley!
Departure from Downton: 100%
Kevin Doyle
From Downton Abbey's gentle philosopher-footman to present-day policeman, Kevin Doyle makes a 180 in portraying bad cop DS John Wadsworth in season two of Happy Valley (alongside The Paradise's Sarah Lancashire), on Netflix.
Departure from Downton: 100%
Elizabeth McGovern
Next up for the actress behind Lady Cora takes Elizabeth McGovern back across the pond to 1977 America in Showing Roots, a feature film about opening a small-town beauty shop for black and white clients after the broadcast of the miniseries Roots.
Departure from Downton: 100%
Lily James
Next up for Lily James, Downton's Lady Rose, is a WWII spy thriller, The Kaiser's Last Kiss, in which she plays the Jewish, Dutch love interest of a German soldier. After Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Departure from Downton: 60%) and Cinderella (Departure from Downton: 70%), in Rose-like fashion, James once again plays forbidden love. But this time the stakes are much, much higher.
Departure from Downton: 90%
Samantha Bond
Downton's feisty Lady Rosamund, Samantha Bond, is slated to return as Frances Burden, the heart and soul of the Women's Institute, in Home Fires Season 2 on MASTERPIECE. Like Rosamund, Burden has a commanding — and sometimes divisive — presence. But she has a lot more work to do!
Departure from Downton: 75%
Brendan Coyle
Brendan Coyle left Mr. Bates' cane and his conscience behind for his next television role — the actor behind Downton's longsuffering, loyal valet will play a vicious mob boss in the upcoming series Spotless (on the Esquire Network). A genuine baddie, instead of a falsely accused — what would Anna think?
Departure from Downton: 100%