'The Crown': First look at Olivia Colman's Queen as she replaces Claire Foy
Netflix has released the first look of the new Queen for the third season of 'The Crown' in which English actress Olivia Colman replaces Claire Foy. In the post shared by Netflix on Twitter on Monday, the new Queen is seen sitting holding a cup of tea, clad in the monarch's signature pink suit and pearls. The post is captioned "Patience" which reflects Colman's calm posture in the picture which highlights her profile.
The 'Broadchurch' actress will be taking up the 34-year-old Claire Foy's role as England's longest-serving monarch in the third season which is set to air in 2019. The actress, who is best known for her roles in 'Peep Show' and 'The Night Manager', has been quite excited about the role which Foy has so elegantly executed in the first two seasons. Daily Mail quoted the actress saying, "I'm so thrilled to be part of 'The Crown'. I was utterly gripped watching it. I think Claire Foy is an absolute genius — she's an incredibly hard act to follow. I'm basically going to re-watch every episode and copy her."
On the other hand, in an interview with Emmy magazine (issue out in November), Foy has said that her time as the Queen is up and now the crown belongs to someone else. "It's not mine anymore. It's someone else's." The two actresses have reportedly spoken a couple of times regarding the role and Foy has given out some advice to help the 44-year-old actress in achieving her stature as the new Queen of England.
The actress who was five-months pregnant when she had auditioned for the role of the Queen has advised Colman not to pressurize herself much about the role. "Make sure you take care of yourself and don’t get too tired. When you are doing a long-run show like that and it’s nine months per season, it’s hard work, long hours, long weeks, long months. It’s important to take time to get sleep,” she said.
Season 3 is set to pick up from where Season 2 left off and will be span the years 1964 to 1974. The chance that the plot may include Princess Diana is quite low as Diana only met Prince Charles in 1977.
The three-time BAFTA Award-winning actress will play the role of an elderly Queen during an era when England came under the grip of 'The Beatles' mania followed by England bringing home the FIFA World Cup in 1966. Peter Morgan, the creator of the show, had mentioned in an interview with Variety in February that Colman had all the qualities which were required to represent the Queen. "I think we all felt Olivia had something that corresponded [to what we wanted], that ability to be both plain and dazzling, and to be both knowable and unknowable,” Morgan said. “And then we rang her up, and she said yes on the phone.”
Along with Colman, the new cast will also include Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, and Ben Daniels as Antony Armstrong-Jones.