Imelda Staunton, Geraldine James among ‘Downton Abbey’ movie additions

The cast of TV’s “Downton Abbey” is expanding for a feature film project. Image: Carnival Film & Television Limited via AFP Relaxnews

Seven actresses and actors have been added to the cast of 2019’s “Downton Abbey” film project, including a second “Harry Potter” alumnus.

Imelda Staunton is joining fellow “Harry Potter” franchise name Dame Maggie Smith in the cinematic adaptation of TV hit “Downton Abbey”.

Smith played Professor McGonagall in seven of eight “Harry Potter” films, with Staunton appearing as Dolores Umbridge, cruel one-time Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in sixth film franchise entry “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.

Where Dame Smith is among the cohort of “Downton Abbey” cast members making the transition from TV series to film, Staunton is one of several new faces to the early 20th century British period drama.

She is accompanied by David Haig (“Penny Dreadful”, 2013 series “Yes, Prime Minister”), Geraldine James (“Sherlock Holmes” movies, “Alice in Wonderland”), Simon Jones (1981 series “Brideshead Revisited”), Tuppence Middleton (“Sense8”), Stephen Campbell Moore (2017 series “The Last Post”) and Kate Phillips (“Peaky Blinders” seasons three and four).

Over the course of a six-season run lasting from 2011 to 2016, “Downton Abbey” accumulated 69 Emmy nominations, a record for a TV series made outside the United States. JB

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