Originally published November 29, 2019. Updated February 2, 2020.
Though Olivia Colman has taken up the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix’s The Crown, it looks like Claire Foy will reprise the role in an upcoming episode of the fourth season in a flashback.
Some behind the scenes photos have popped up online showing Foy reprising her role as the Queen in what looks to be a recreation of the monarch’s 21st birthday speech during her tour of South Africa. Foy played the role in the first two seasons of The Crown while Colman has portrayed the Queen in her later years for the third season and the upcoming fourth season. The current third season chronicles 1964 – 1976.
The Crown will see a rotating cast of actors as the series follows the aging members of Britain’s Royal Family. Matt Smith played Prince Phillip alongside Foy’s Queen in the the first two seasons while Tobias Menzies has the role for the next two seasons. There have been no casting announcements for the Royal Family in seasons five and six, though it has been revealed Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) will play Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Emma Corrin (Pennyworth) as Princess Diana in the fourth season.
The third season of The Crown sees a new guard sweep into Downing Street, as Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) and her family struggle to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing Britain. From cold-war paranoia, through to the jet-set and the space age – the exuberance of the 1960s and the long hangover of the 1970s – Elizabeth and the Royals must adapt to a new, more liberated, but also more turbulent world. Written by Peter Morgan, The Crown also stars Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies as The Duke of Edinburgh, Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Ben Daniels as Lord Snowdon, Jason Watkins as Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten.
