Long may she reign: Broadchurch star is set to take over 'The Crown'
Broadchurch star Olivia Coleman will take over the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the hit Netflix drama The Crown as of Season 3, Mashable has confirmed.
Netflix had long intended to pick a different actress to succeed Claire Foy, who played the queen in the 1950s, the early years of her reign. Putting Coleman in the role for Seasons 3 and 4 allows the showrunners to skip forward in time at least a decade. (Foy is 33, Coleman 43.)
A fixture on British TV since her days in the early 2000s comedy Peep Show, Coleman was long rumored to be in the running for the lead role in Doctor Who. It turned out that Broadchurch co-star Jodie Whittaker got that gig, but regenerating into the queen -- on the most expensive TV show yet made -- is a heck of a good consolation prize for Coleman.
Coleman also has form for playing royals -- in the 2012 movie Hyde Park on Hudson, she played Queen Elizabeth II's mother, also called Queen Elizabeth, the wife of George VI.
Technically, Netflix has not announced a Season 3 of The Crown, but the announcement of Coleman's casting is a surefire sign that it's going ahead. (Given the Golden Globe award and other critical acclaim for the show, it was a no-brainer.)
Showrunner Peter Morgan created The Crown with the concept that it would cover the queen's reign thus far, with each season covering a different decade. Season 1 covered the years 1947 to 1955, while Season 2 is said to cover 1956 through 1964, from the Suez Crisis through JFK's visit to London and the birth of Princes Andrew and Edward.
If Seasons 3 and 4 follow the same trajectory, Coleman will take over as the queen of Beatles-era Britain -- with her reign encompassing the industrial discontent of the 1970s, the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and likely concluding around Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
Which in turn means there's a meaty role in a couple years' time for a British actress in her 50s to take over from Coleman -- just in time to deal with the disaster of the Charles and Di marriage in the 1980s and 1990s.
Season 2 of The Crown premieres December 8, 2017.
Topics Netflix
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
