So the second season of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown is only dropping on 9 December, but fans are already looking forward to Season 3 of the hit show! That’s because there are going to be some shocking changes, including many new central cast members.
Claire Foy will no longer play Queen Elizabeth II
Though 33-year-old Claire is a flawless Queen Elizabeth, show creator Peter Morgan revealed that the character will simply be too old by the mid-60s for Claire to be believable in the role. “I feel that when we reach 1963-64 we’ve gone as far as we can go with Claire Foy without having to do silly things in terms of makeup to make her look older,” he said. “She can’t help the fact she’s as young as she is.” Instead,
Queen Elizabeth II will be played by Olivia Coleman, who is 43 years old.
Luckily, Olivia has Claire’s stamp of approval. “She’s great,” Claire gushed to Jimmy Fallon. “You’ll forget all about me and the rest of the cast. You’ll be like, ‘Who are they?’ We’re the warm-up act.” Olivia will reportedly begin filming her big debut in early 2018, for a Season 3 premiere at the beginning of 2019.
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Matt Smith is also being replaced as Prince Philip
Matt, 35, will also be exiting the show for the same reason as Claire, but his replacement has not been named yet. However, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, he did accidentally share that while fans are in the dark about his replacement, he knows who it is. “Well, I don’t know, I maybe know. I don’t know if I know. I’m not meant to know, but I maybe know,” he teased Seth Myers on Late Night.
“If it’s the person that it could be I was just totally flattered. I thought, ‘Oh I’m flattered.'” Who could be so flattering?! Many fans are calling for UK star David Tennant to take his place, which would be ironic because Matt actually replaced David as The Doctor in Doctor Who. David actually wouldn’t be a bad idea, though, as he is 46 years old, and he does look believably like Prince Philip. Only time will tell!
As well as Claire Foy and Matt Smith’s replacements, The Crown has cast Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and Helena Bonham-Carter as Princess Margaret.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will be introduced in Season 3
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will be introduced in Season 3, though at the time she will simply be known as Camilla Parker Bowles. “[Showrunner] Peter’s already talking about the most wonderful things,” said Producer Suzanne Mackie at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival in April. “You start meeting Camilla in Season 3.” Of course, Camilla eventually becomes Prince Charles’ second wife.
Season 3 is expected to take place in the mid-60s
Show creator Peter revealed that Season 2 will go through the early-to-mid 60s, which leads us to believe that that’s when Season 3 will pick up, unless there is an unexpected time jump. So far, the show has been chronological, so it’s unlikely that the season will pick up further along than the mid-60s. It would make sense because Peter said Claire could only play Elizabeth until 1964, and Charles and Camilla start dating in the 70s, which seems to confirm the time frame.
Yes, there will also be a Season 4
The Crown has been renewed by Netflix through Season 4, which producer Suzanne revealed is “being mapped out” already, but it likely won’t be released until at least 2020, so there are no real details available for it yet.
This post originally appeared on our sister site, Closer Weekly
