Downton Abbey 2 is officially coming to cinemas this Christmas

We love a good release date.

Production details have been announced for a second Downton Abbey movie and not to quote Line of Duty directly... but we're officially sucking diesel now. The celebrated upstairs-downstairs franchise is returning to the big screen and will land Christmas 2021, December 22 to be specific. The news comes over a year after producers admitted they were committed to creating a sequel to the 2019 smash-hit movie.

The original film followed a Royal Visit to the Crawley family and Downton staff from the King and Queen of England and ended with a ball fitting for the Royal Family. For the second outing, Downton's original creator Julian Fellowes will once again write the screenplay, with Emmy winners Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge back to produce. Speaking about the announcement Gareth Neame, who doubles as executive chairman of Carnival Films said, “After a very challenging year with so many of us separated from family and friends, it is a huge comfort to think that better times are ahead and that next Christmas we will be reunited with the much-beloved characters of Downton Abbey.”

In further good news, all our favourite actors, including Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Imelda Staunton and Maggie Smith, will be returning to their roles and in addition, we'll also see some new faces including, Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West join the cast. We don't have a huge amount of detail about what the story will focus on, but we do know the Crawley's won't disappoint. Focus Features will distribute the movie alongside Universal Pictures International, and chairman Peter Kujawski said, “There’s no place like home for the holidays, and we can’t imagine a better gift than getting to reunite with Julian, Gareth, and the entire Downton family in 2021 to bring the Crawley’s back home for their fans.” We'd have to agree.