It’s official. The Crown has found its new Queen Elizabeth II in BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman. RadioTimes.com has confirmed that the Broadchurch and Night Manager actress will take over the role for the upcoming third and fourth seasons of the show.

Claire Foy, the current Queen Elizabeth II, will abdicate the throne and, along with Matt Smith as Prince Phillip, their roles as the royal couple at the end of series two which ends in 1963. Series 2, which premieres on Netflix in December, will see a number of new faces coming to Buckingham Palace, including Dexter’s Michael C Hall as President John F Kennedy and Jodi Balfour as his wife Jackie Kennedy. Matthew Goode also joins the cast in the role of Lord Snowdon, aka Antony Armstrong-Jones, the society photographer who went on to marry Princess Margaret.

The news didn’t come as a shock to either Foy and Smith as they initially signed on to play the royal couple for only the first two series of The Crown. The move was inevitable given the scheduled significant time jump between series 2 and 3.

The Crown S2 streams on Netflix beginning December 8.

In: Drama

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