What's In Store For 'Downton Abbey' Season Three?!

*If you haven't finished 'Downton Abbey' seasons one & two, this will be spoilerish. So go finish watching the first two seasons then come back & read this article!*



What an end to 'Downton Abbey' season two! Now we have to impatiently wait for season three, which won't air in the US until January 2013! Yikes! It will air on ITV in Britain this fall.

So what's in store for season three? Will Lady Mary & Matthew Crawley really settle down together? Will Mr. Bates ever be released from prison? Will O'Brien & Thomas's scheming ways be discovered? What kind of one liners will erupt out of the Dowager Countess when Lady Cora's mother, played by actress Shirley MacLaine, shows up? How will Sybil, Branson & their new baby be received? Will the mysterious Patrick Crawley (the presumed dead heir) make a reappearance?

Here's what some of the cast & crew have had to say about season three:

Watch Downton Abbey: Hopes for the Roaring Twenties on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Allen Leech who plays Branson tweeted:

Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham said this during his PBS online chat with fans, January 30th:

"S3 - well it starts in the spring of 1920, that's a few months after the end of S2 and spans about 18 months. After the urgency of the war years, things calm down a bit... but only a bit! ... There are plenty of surprises in store, put it that way."

This past  February, Brendon Coyle (Mr. Bates), had his turn answering fans questions during his PBS online chat. Here's an excerpt from that chat:

What can we expect to see with this character ... in Season 3?

"He begins series three in prison...I can't say anymore...honestly."

Any other Season 3 details?

"There is a wedding...or two?...Shirley MacLaine is amongst us....the scripts are superb...stick with us."

Are you excited to be working with [Shirley MacLaine]?

"I had the privilege of sitting beside @maclaineshirley at lunch yesterday...this casting is ingenious...she is much loved here,her scenes are brilliant and I can assure you she will be a dazzling addition to Downton Abbey."

From the series creator himself, Julian Fellowes, in a New York Times interview:

Q: For just one episode, we met a character who may or may not be the missing heir, Patrick Crawley. Is it safe to say we’ve not seen the last of him? 

A: I’m not quite sure whether you have or you haven’t. Some people have washing lines full of characters and blackboards covered with designs and things pointing at each other. I don’t really have that. I feel we need to know a little bit more about him, but whether we go back there, I don’t know.

Q: What are you legally permitted to tell us about what will happen in Season 3 of “Downton Abbey”?

A: [laughs] One of the reasons we chose 1912 is that the world was seemingly – I say, seemingly – very serene. In fact, there were all sorts of issues — women’s rights, workers’ rights, and across Europe, democracy and the legitimacy of monarchy – all pulsing away. But they hadn’t really broken the surface in a lot of people’s minds and of course it was all going to go up in flames two years later. So by starting it in 1912, it meant that we could have that post-Edwardian serenity, followed by the first World War, followed by the ’20s, a time of immense social change. You had the first votes being given – not to all women, but at least to some women – in 1919, and you have union activity, you have the Russian Revolution, you have all sorts of troubles going on across Europe.  And that gave us right there, three series where each would have a very different mood. Which was rather an attractive idea, really.

Season three can't get here soon enough! Until then I guess we'll have to keep busy watching reruns & playing with our paper dolls lol! Bring it! #DowntonAbbeyAddicts