What’s Next For The ‘Downton Abbey’ Cast?

Now that Lady Mary has finally settled down with a new husband and a baby on the way, it’s time for Michelle Dockery to move on. It remains to be seen whether true movie stardom awaits in her future. For now, she’s working on smaller films, like the film adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel The Sense of an Ending, alongside Jim Broadbent and recent Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling.

So long as the world needs stuffy patricians, it seems a decent bet that Hugh Bonneville will remain highly employable. His most intriguing upcoming role is in Viceroy’s House, where he plays Lord Mountbatten opposite Gillian Anderson. Which honestly sounds amazing?

Edith got herself a happy ending, if you can believe it. The characters on Downton Abbey weren’t quite sure they could. Now that Laura Carmichael doesn’t have to play sad-faced Edith anymore, maybe she’ll be able to find the fun a little bit more? We’ll see if her next project is the one to break that pattern, as she’ll co-star in director Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, the upcoming film starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike about a Botswanan prince who falls in love with a white woman from London. It appears that Carmichael will be playing Pike’s sister. So … sister to a heastrong protagonist? I think she’s got this.

I can’t even remember the last time Bates had a good storyline (if ever?), so it should be nice for Brendan Coyle to give something else a try. The most prominent of these is this summer’s Me Before You, a love story starring Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games), where Coyle looks to be playing Clarke’s father. He’s also been cast in the Irish historical drama The Rising: 1916, opposite Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

The Golden Globe-winning Froggatt has a few projects on her docket, including the British mini-series Dark Angel, where she’ll play serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. She’ll also star in A Storm in the Stars, opposite actresses Elle Fanning, Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones).

Until a third Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movie gets the green light, Wilton will instead have to settle for Steven Spielberg. Yes, Cousin Isobel is in the cast of this summer’s The BFG, Spielberg’s Roald Dahl adaptation. She’ll be playing The Queen, opposite Mark Rylance and Rebecca Hall.

Rose made a surprise appearance at Downton in time for the series’ final moments, but Lily James has already established a pretty solid movie career, with Cinderella, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and War and Peace under her belt. Next up for James is Baby Driver from acclaimed director Edgar Wright, where she’ll star opposite Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx.

Matthew Goode was already a movie star before he signed on for Downton‘s final season as Lady Mary’s wildly handsome suitor. He’s currently filming the History Channel’s Roots remake, one of an all-star cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose, Anna Paquin, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.