- Warning: Spoilers ahead for "
Downton Abbey : A New Era." - Hugh Bonneville was surprised his on-screen mother returned for the sequel.
"Downton Abbey" star Hugh Bonneville said he was surprised that Maggie Smith's beloved Violet Crawley appears in the sequel movie, "A New Era," because he expected the character to die off-screen.
Bonneville, who plays Smith's son, Lord Grantham, told Insider he thought Violet would be killed off between 2019's "Downton Abbey" movie spinoff of the hit TV show and the recent sequel.
Violet announced at the end of the first "Downton" movie that she was severely ill and eventually succumbs to her illness at the end of "A New Era" in an emotional farewell with her loved ones by her bedside.
"I always thought she was going to die between films because Maggie always said she'd finished," Bonneville explained. "Every season she said, 'That's it, I'm not doing anymore.' Somehow her wonderful agent would persuade her, or Julian [Fellowes], or someone. So I was surprised when I'd read that she was back."
The actor added: "I thought it was going to open with a funeral procession, but it doesn't. It opens with a wedding and granny's still hanging on."
Bonneville also told Insider that he thought the "Downton" matriarch's swansong was "handled wonderfully."
"I think she probably has more to do in this film than she did in the last. It was great to say farewell to her in such a glorious way," the actor said.
Bonneville paid tribute to Smith, his on-screen mother in six seasons of the hit "Downton" TV show and two movies, adding: "She'd been my mum and it was quite a privilege … I can think back to the first day of filming and I was fairly intimidated, and I was fairly intimidated on the last day."
The actor said that there were multiple occasions to say goodbye to Smith on set.
"We marked the end of shooting in the dining room, which was a behemoth of a set to film in and we had worked in it for months on end if you put all the scenes together. So that was a significant day, her last dining room scene. And then her actual farewell," Bonneville said.
"Her actual last day on the film was another farewell. It was a tiny little scene I wasn't involved in."
"Downton Abbey: A New Era" is available now on digital and Peacock, and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 5.
Disclaimer: Universal Pictures provided Insider travel and accommodation for the "Downton Abbey: A New Era" press junket.