“Downton Abbey” fever is burning up the box office faster than a typhus epidemic.
The much-anticipated full-length feature starring Dame Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery and Elizabeth McGovern is already gearing up for a sequel after raking in more than £110 million (about $134 million) in just 26 days since its UK release.
Julian Fellowes, the writer and creator of the multiple awarding-winning PBS series, which ended its six-season TV run in 2015, is already in talks with distributor Focus Features for a sequel following the smashing big screen success, the Sun reported.
A “TV insider” told the UK outlet, “Julian and the team are over the moon with how it played out. No one expected it would be this big,” and added that the “commercial viability” of a follow-up is certain.
The “Downton Abbey” film is set in the fall of 1927, picking up the storyline of the fictional Crawley family about 18 months after the finale episode’s ending.
In this installment, the aristocratic manor in the English countryside is busy preparing for a royal visit from King George V and Queen Mary, played by Simon Jones and Geraldine James.
Last week, actor Hugh Bonneville, who reprised the role of patriarch Robert Crawley in the film, told the Mirror he would consider a sequel.
“When we started filming, I thought this is going to be a nice full stop, but there is such an appetite for it, I can see it carrying on,” Bonneville said. “I’d never say never!”