Dan Stevens Won’t Return For Downton Abbey Movie

What’s Downton Abbey without the effortlessly charming Matthew Crawley?

Brought to life by Legion actor Dan Stevens, we had reason to believe last year that Mr. Crawley was headed back to the manor to prepare for the upcoming movie adaptation, which was said to have most, if not all, of the mainline cast returning.

We know that Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Hugh Bonneville, among many others, are already on the docket, with series creator Julian Fellowes on script duties. The latter will also co-produce this one-off period drama alongside Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge, but it seems that Stevens won’t be joining them after all.

An Instagram post (see below) from last year had fans thinking the actor would be involved in the project, but catching up with him this week, Deadline has now confirmed that unfortunately, the Downton Abbey movie will be without Mr. Crawley.

That’s certainly a shame, but not entirely unexpected given the fate Stevens’ character met on the show. Besides, there’s going to be a whole host of characters already taking up screen time and fighting for our attention. Aside from all the regulars, we also know that the film has cast a ton of newcomers, such as Imelda Staunton, Geraldine James, Simon Jones, David Haig, Tuppence Middleton, Kate Phillips and Stephen Campbell Moore, who all signed on late last year in undisclosed parts.

Downton Abbey is scheduled for a UK release on September 13th, 2019, with the US following one week later on September 20th, 2019. Just don’t expect to see Dan Stevens’ Matthew Crawley make an appearance. Unless, of course, they’re just keeping his appearance a surprise. Time will tell, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.