Focus Features and the UK’s Carnival Films have announced the start of production on a third Downton Abbey feature, with Paul Giamatti among new cast members and Simon Curtis once again directing. 

Giamatti, recently Oscar-nominated for The Holdovers, will reprise the role he played in an episode of the fourth season of the Downton Abbey TV series. Also joining the cast for the new film are Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan. Returning cast members include Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter and Phyllis Logan.

Like the first two feature spin-offs from the hugely successful series, the third film – currently being referred to only as Downton Abbey 3 – is written by series creator Julian Fellowes and produced by Gareth Neame, Fellowes and Liz Trubridge.

Curtis returns after directing the second feature, 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era.

A New Era grossed $92.7m worldwide and $44.1m in the US and Canada. The first feature spin-off, 2019’s Downton Abbey, directed by Michael Engler, took $194.7m worldwide, including $96.9m from the US and Canada.