There’ll be a new reigning queen when Netflix’s The Crown returns for seasons 3 and 4.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has officially cast The Lobster actress Olivia Colman to take over for Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II.
Though Foy has done a phenomenal job as Her Royal Highness thus far, casting an older actress to play the Queen has been in the works since the series first premiered just last year.
The plan for The Crown has always been to tell the story of HRH Queen Elizabeth II’s life in its entirety over the course of six seasons.
In order to do that accurately, the plan for the series is to change out cast members every two seasons in order to cast actors who are closer to the age range of the figures they’ll be portraying.
“This is going to take Queen Elizabeth from age 29 to, presumably, the current day. We’ll see it lay out over decades,” said Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos of the series just last year. “The idea is to do this over six decades, in six seasons presumably, and make the whole show [run] over eight to 10 years.”
Though exiting the series after two seasons is understandably bittersweet, Foy herself revealed in an interview with THR earlier this year that she’s excited to experience The Crown as an avid viewer after she departs the series.
“I can’t wait to watch it, and I just think whoever they get to play that part, they’ll be extraordinary,” Foy told the outlet. “I will never watch it with any sense of bitterness or regret. I will feel what I will feel now, which is so happy and lucky for the experience.”
As sad as we’ll be to see both Foy and fellow co-star Matt Smith depart as the British royals, we’ll be looking forward to seeing what the likes of Colman and the rest of the new cast members bring to the series over the course of the next few seasons.
The Crown season 2 will be available to stream via Netflix beginning December 8, 2017.
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