Three years on since Downton Abbey: A New Era, the death of the Dowager Duchess (plus Dame Maggie Smith who played her) and a third film is almost here.

Set for release this September, the original cast are all returning alongside a character not seen since the 2013 Christmas special.

Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti is reprising Harold Levinson, Countess Cora Crawley’s brother.

And now his co-star Alessandro Nivola, who is playing a new character in Downton Abbey 3, has teased what he can about his role and the start of the upcoming movie.

The American actor confessed he’s not playing a Brit for once but joins Giamatti’s Levinson as a fellow yank. It turns out Nivola and the Oscar-nominee go way back having been in Yale student plays together, sending their kids to the same school and both playing the Rhino in Spider-Man movies. And now they’ve reunited on the big screen for Downton Abbey 3 and it sounds like their characters are pretty close.

Nivola shared with Screen Rant: “It really was joyful entering into that world with them. I really will be executed if I tell you anything too revealing, but Paul and I are both Americans. He's the brother of Elizabeth McGovern's character, Cora, and lives in New York. I'm one of his carousing drinking buddies, and we come back to the house at the beginning of the movie.”

Downton Abbey 3 hits UK cinemas on September 12, 2025.