The ‘Downton Abbey’ Sequel Trailer Shows Family Secrets & Hollywood Movie Stars Galore

Downton Abbey: A New Era has quite a lot in store for fans, according to its recent trailer. Focus Features dropped the trailer for Downton Abbey: A New Era on Feb.15 which gives fans a peek into the adventures in store. Firstly there is Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) revealing that she has inherited a villa in the south of France from an old flame. It gets more glamorous with a bunch of Hollywood movie stars arriving at Downton to shoot a movie and it looks like Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) will be overseeing the project. "The modern world comes to Downton," Lady Cora says in reference to her home becoming a movie set. 

According to Mashable, guest stars include Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye, and Jonathan Zaccaï. Then there are familiar faces: Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), Edith Pelham, Marchioness of Hexham (Laura Carmichael), Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), Tom Branson (Allen Leech), Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) along with Carson (Jim Carter), Anna (Joanne Froggatt), and Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle), to name a few. But we did notice that Matthew Goode, who plays Henry Talbot, Lady Mary's second husband is missing.

Hopefully, there's no more heartbreak in store for Lady Mary since Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes previously told PEOPLE the upcoming sequel will be an "unashamedly feel-good movie." "I like the idea that people go into the movie and have a great two hours and then go out to have dinner. That seems to me to be a good thing," Fellowes said. "If we are useful for cheering people up and giving them an easy time of it, that doesn't bother me." The sequel will pick up from the last film that came out in 2019. The Downton Abbey series is one of the most popular and beloved British drama shows which ran from 2010 to 2015. Now things are going to get more contemporary it seems. "It's really a new era. The further the '20s went along, the more the world was changing in so many ways. Everything from entertainment to transport was really different by the end of the '20s. That's what we're referring to in that," he said. And of the character played by Michelle Dockery, the Oscar-winning writer added, "As we know from the last film, Mary may not be the titular head of the household, but she is effectively running the show. We take that further. We're trying to mark the change—the fact that Crawleys of Downton are nearly in the 1930s, which is merely the beginning of the modern world."

Downton Abbey: A New Era will release in theaters on May 20 in the U.S. and April 29 in the UK.