ITV's 'Downton Abbey' Season 5 Spoilers: Lily James, Laura Carmichael Meet George Clooney! [WATCH]

British network ITV has released an official clip from the upcoming Season 5 Christmas special from the award-winning drama, Downton Abbey. Lady Rose MacClare (Lily James), Lady Edith Crawley (Laura Carmichael), and Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley) are all in for a surprise visit from two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney.

During the fourth season, we saw a widowed Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) not ready to move on from Matthew's death, putting both Lord Gillingham (Tom Cullen) and Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) on hold. Not only will these characters return, continuing their storyline, there were also new additions to the cast.

According to USA Weekly, the Three Kings actor is in the midst of mingling with Lady Rose MacClare (James) when he is rudely interrupted by Lady Edith Crawley (Carmichael). Behind-the-scenes though, Clooney was having a blast with Hugh Bonneville (Crawley) for the promotional set photos.

The official Downton Abbey Facebook Page states beside their photo, "Some months ago the cast & crew of Downton Abbey filmed a stand-alone sketch for ITV's Text Santa campaign, to be screened on 19th December 2014."

As we previously reported, the former Batman  and now husband of Amal Alamuddin will appear in a one-off sketch for the ITV charity, Text Santa. This is an annual fundraiser that raises money for U.K. charities during the Christmas season.

Though U.S. audiences haven't seen the fifth season yet, the U.K. already has. We also announced that Downton Abbey will be back for a sixth season and will continue to be written by scribe Julian Fellowes.

Check out the teaser here:

Downton Abbey's Season 5 premiere in the U.S. airs January 4, 2015 and Clooney will show up a month before on Thursday, December 19. Readers, are you excited to see Clooney on the show?