Hugh Bonneville has said the new Downton Abbey movie will be a ‘great, lasting tribute’ to the late Dame Maggie Smith, who died last month aged 89.

The 60-year-old actor revealed that filming on the third installment of the popular period drama has wrapped this summer and that he will be ‘closing all the stories’.

From 2010 to 2015, Hugh played Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, son of Dame Maggie’s character Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the ITV soap.

Speaking on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with the National Lottery on Virgin Radio UK, Hugh paid tribute to his late Oscar-winning co-star.

He said: ‘We’ve completed the third and I think last Downton Abbey movie this summer, which will be released next September and it’s a great conclusion to all the stories so it’s a great movie for fans.

Hugh Bonneville has said the new Downton Abbey film will be a ‘great, lasting tribute’ to the late Dame Maggie Smith, who died last month aged 89; pictured 2018

The 60-year-old actor revealed that filming on the third installment of the popular period drama has wrapped this summer and that he will be ‘closing all the stories’

“It’s mostly set at home and we say goodbye to all these characters and of course we say goodbye to Dame Maggie too, which was so touching both on screen and now in real life.

‘He will be missed very much. But the final film is sure to be a lasting tribute to him.’

Following Maggie’s death in September, a video resurfaced in which the legendary actress admitted that she had “never watched Downton Abbey.”

Speaking on the Graham Norton Show in 2015, the Harry Potter icon admitted that although he had not watched the series, he was happy with the series’ ending.

The host asked, “Are you kind of glad Downton is over?” he asked, and Maggie didn’t hesitate to answer: “Oh yes.”

He added: ‘No, I really am. To be honest, it must have been a hundred and ten years old when we finished, so I couldn’t go any further.

‘I couldn’t do it! It didn’t make any sense.”

Asked if she had watched the British period drama herself, she hesitated and then gave the presenter a cheeky look.

From 2010 to 2015, Hugh played Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, son of Dame Maggie’s character Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the ITV soap.

He added: ‘It’s mostly set at home and we say goodbye to all these characters and of course we say goodbye to Dame Maggie too’; pictured 2011

Graham said, “Didn’t you?” He struggled to hold back his laughter as he insisted, but Maggie nodded, confirming that he hadn’t.

‘I bought the box set. “So I can watch,” he added, sending the audience on edge.

At the end of last month, the release date for the third Downton Abbey film was announced, with shooting beginning in Yorkshire.

The new film will be released worldwide on September 12, 2025, and Universal Pictures UK confirmed the news on Instagram.

The headline read: ‘A new cinema phenomenon. ‘The third film in the beloved #DowntonAbbey franchise will be released exclusively in cinemas on September 12, 2025.’

Hugh, Dominic West, Elizabeth, Michelle, Laura, Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan and Robert James-Collier will return for the highly anticipated film.

Joanne Froggatt – who confirmed she was pregnant with her first child last week – Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sophie McShera and Douglas Reith will also be pregnant. I’m back at Downton.

It was announced that Paul Giamatti will also be in the squad.

The Oscar nominee will reprise his role as Cora’s brother, Harold Levinson, from the TV series.

Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola and House of the Dragon actors Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan are also expected to join the third film of the series.

Bosses were hoping to bring back some of the big-name actors who appeared in the previous six seasons and two films.

The series, which covers many social changes and world events between 1912 and 1928, will be on screens again next year.

The hugely successful period drama launched on ITV in 2011 and has spawned six seasons and two films.

The first two films, released in 2019 and 2022, grossed a total of $287.3 million worldwide.