First Full 'Downton Abbey' Movie Trailer Teases a Royal Occasion!

Polish the silver, wind the clocks, and rouge your cheeks because your favorite English aristocrats are back!

The first full trailer for the highly-anticipated Downton Abbey movie is finally here to give us a peak at what those crazy Crawleys are up to since we last saw them when the smash-hit Masterpiece series bowed back in 2015!

For those who need a refresher as to where we left our posh pals at the end of the 6th and final season:

- Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, and patriarch of the Crawley fam (Hugh Bonneville), finally loosened his grip on the household a bit, allowing his eldest daughter and heir Mary to start taking on more responsibilities of running Downton Abbey.

- Cora Crawley, Robert’s wife (Elizabeth McGovern), was made president of the hospital board, which initially irked Robert but he eventually came to accept it (women be doing stuff for themselves now, Bobby, get used to it!).

- Violet Crawley, the sassy Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), remained as curmudgeonly and lovable as ever, and even more set in her (outdated) ways than her son.

- After having entertained many potential suitors over the years following the death of her husband Matthew, Mary, the heir of Downton and Snobstress Supreme (Michelle Dockery), finally got hitched to – of all things – a race car driver! She revealed she was pregnant on New Year’s Eve.

- Meanwhile, outcast middle sister Edith (Laura Carmichael) finally got married herself, to a well-to-do peer of the realm, Bertie. Suck it, Mary!

- Tom Branson (Allen Leech), the Crawley’s former butler-turned-in-law when he married younger sister Sybil, left for America for a while but came back at the end of the season and started an automobile dealership.

- The Crawley’s butler Carson (Jim Carter) and housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) finally hooked up (my shipper heart!!!) and retired after Carson’s health went into decline.

- Mr. Bates, Lord Grantham’s valet (Brendan Coyle), and his wife Anna, Lady Mary’s maid (Joanne Froggatt), welcomed their first child on New Year’s Eve.

- Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), the scheming and closeted under-butler, takes another position with another family in a much smaller household but returns to Downton when Lord Grantham needs a replacement for Carson as butler.

- Kitchen maid Daisy (Sophie McShera) falls for the new footman and intends to leave Downton and live on a farm.

And those are the major players. Everything ended very neatly and tidily, so what could possibly be left for these characters of any importance.

Oh, I don’t know, how about… A ROYAL VISIT?!

Yes, as we see from the trailer, the household is thrown into chaos when Lord Grantham receives a letter announcing that The King and Queen will be visiting Downton! Now, for those of you who aren’t history buffs, the King and Queen in question is no doubt King George V and Queen Mary, grandparents of the current Queen Elizabeth II. George V was actually quite well known for popping into castles and keeps of his subjects for rousing weekends of feasting and hunting. There is actually some historical precedent to this fictionalized version of events, as King George famously visited Highclere Castle, which is where Downton Abbey is filmed, during his reign (there’s an excellent documentary about Highclere Castle on Netflix that talks about this more, go check it out!). This momentous occasion is enough to bring all of our faves back together again – including Carson, who agrees to come out of retirement to assist Lady Mary and Lord Grantham in pulling it all off!

It’s also 2 years following the series finale, so by now there should be a new baby for Lady Mary, but it’s hard to tell at this juncture how much more has changed. We shall see soon enough when Downton Abbey hits theatres in September!