Are you sitting down? Good. Because we've got some devastating news for fans of the TV series.

'Downton Abbey 2' has shifted its release date back three months and into 2022 it has been confirmed. The movie will now open next March.

The upcoming period drama sequel was initially confirmed for a Christmas 2021 release back in April of this year by the franchise's official Twitter account but sadly, it appears that it was all one big ruse. We'll have that sherry now to calm the nerves if you please.

The unfortunate news comes after the first footage of the sequel was shown to attendees at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week. The official title of the movie was also released, and is now titled 'Downton Abbey: A New Era'.

According to Deadline, the teaser footage shown at the event sees the Crawley family and the Downton staff prepare for a trip abroad. A wedding is evidently on the cards, and there were lots of glitz, glamour and jazz unfolding on the screen. Hopefully, we'll get the official trailer for 'Downton Abbey: A New Era' very soon.

Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Laura Carmichael will be back for the movie sequel, as well as Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West. Maggie Smith is also believed to be on the return as Violet Crawley. Series creator Julian Fellowes has once again written the film’s screenplay, with Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning Gareth Neame and Emmy Award-winning Liz Trubridge back to produce alongside Fellowes.

'Downton Abbey: A New Era' arrives in theatres on March 18, 2022.