Olivia Colman Will Play Queen Elizabeth on Season 3 of ‘The Crown’ (Bye, Claire Foy!)

Welcome to The Crown, Olivia Colman! The 43-year-old actress will reportedly replace Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth for the hit Netflix drama’s upcoming third and fourth seasons. Olivia is best known for starring in the British thriller Broadchurch — her role won her a Best Actress BAFTA in 2014 — and appearing in movies The Lobster, Tyrannosaur, and The Iron Lady. Olivia will allegedly begin filming next year with Season 3 of the period drama set to hit Netflix in early 2019.

Claire as Queen Elizabeth on The Crown.
(Photo Credit: R/R)

In a recent interview, Claire confirmed she’d been told who will succeed her as the Queen in the show’s third season, but didn’t reveal the actress’ name. “I know who’s doing it and I’m not telling you,” she told reporters, adding, “It’s really exciting and great and amazing.” The Crown‘s first season showed the monarch as a young woman in her 20s balancing the public and political demands of her new royal role while dealing with upheaval in her personal life. The forthcoming second season will show Elizabeth in her 30s. But Claire has now said goodbye to the part for Season 3 for the simple reason that, at 33 years old, she’s too young to convincingly play the Queen into the 1970s.

“I always knew from the get-go that I was only going to be doing two [seasons]. I’m just very grateful that I have had such a wonderful time playing that part and made friends for life,” Claire said in a previous interview. Showrunner Peter Morgan also recently explained the casting change. “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. She can’t help the fact she’s as young as she is.” Claire’s castmates Matt Smith, who plays her onscreen husband, Prince Philip, and Vanessa Kirby, who plays Princess Margaret, will also be replaced by new stars in the third season.

Part of this post was written by Katie Rosseinsky. It originally appeared on our sister site, Now to Love.

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