Lily James will not reprise her role as Lady Rose MacClare in upcoming Downton Abbey film

Actor Lily James has confirmed she would not be reprising her role as Lady Rose MacClare in the forthcoming Downton Abbey film. It was confirmed last week that the popular series was being made into a film and producers have said that the entire original cast will be taking part in the big screen adaptation. [caption id=“attachment_4756851” align=“alignleft” width=“825”] Lily James as Lady Rose MacClare in the British drama, Downton Abbey. Twitter[/caption] ‘‘My character Rose moved off to New York, so it would be far fetched to bring her back. I would have loved to have come back for a scene, but for a movie, it can’t be like a Christmas special and it needs to be a focused story-line. There was simply no space for Rose," James told People magazine. The actress had appeared on the 2016 Christmas special which was also the series finale of the award-winning drama for a short duration. The 29-year-old actor, who was part of the series from 2010 until 2015 , said she had ‘‘months’’ to get her head around the fact she would not be joining her castmates and is ‘‘so excited’’ to see her friends Laura Carmichael and Michelle Dockery reprise their roles. ‘‘I spoke to Laura not long ago and was texting Michelle about Love Island and it’s going to be really exciting. And the whole gang is coming back.’’ Downton Abbey movie will be a Carnival Films production, with Focus Features and Universal Pictures International distributing. With inputs from Press Trust of India