• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Today

It’s all hands on deck at NBCUniversal as NBC and Peacock prepare to promote Universal’s new “Downton Abbey” movie a day before its premiere in theaters next month.

The highly anticipated film, titled “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” is billed as exactly that -- the very last time we will see the residents, townsfolk and service staff of the famed, baronial Downton Abbey estate conjured by producer/writer Julian Fellowes.

The movie premieres in theaters on Friday, September 12. On Wednesday, September 10, NBC will air the prime-time special, “Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale,” which will stream on co-owned Peacock the next day.

The special is being positioned as a salute to the show from 16 members of the cast who became global stars thanks to the “Downton” phenomenon.

The one-hour show will have them sharing “personal memories and never-before-told secrets from the franchise’s 15-year journey,” said a press release from NBC.

In addition, the special will feature “a world exclusive scene” from the movie,” promises the network.

NBCU has had a relationship with “Downton” since June 2022 when Peacock announced it had wrested the streaming rights to all six seasons of the show from Netflix. 

Peacock has had the entire run of the original series ever since, although the episodes are also still available on PBS Passport, the subscription streaming service of the Public Broadcasting Service.

When the original “Downton Abbey” premiered on Peacock, the streamer started it rolling with the second movie made from the series, “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” which had been released in theaters just two months earlier.

That movie was distributed by NBCU-owned Focus Features. Next month’s new “Downton” movie is also to be distributed by Focus. 

U.K.-based Carnival Films, producer of the original “Downton Abbey” series and the first two movies, produced the new movie in association with Universal Studios.

“Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” finds the “Downton” community entering the 1930s and facing new financial pressures and a tabloid scandal surrounding Lady Mary’s divorce.

A casual scan of the cast list for the new movie reveals that virtually every character from the show is returning to the new movie. 

Notably absent, of course, will be Maggie Smith, who played the Dowager Countess of Grantham. She passed away last year at the age of 89.

The second “Downton Abbey” movie, “A New Era” (released in 2022), reportedly grossed $92.7 million worldwide on a production budget estimated at $40 million.

The first movie, titled simply “Downton Abbey” and released in 2019, reportedly grossed $194 million globally for an estimated profit of $88 million.