‘The Crown’ Season 3 First Look: Olivia Colman Takes Over For Claire Foy As Queen Elizabeth II

Netflix’s hit drama “The Crown” is currently filming season 3, and normally that wouldn’t be newsworthy by itself. However, with the changes made to the series, which is at its height of popularity, many viewers are interested just how the third season will stack up to the incredible first two. You see, most of the principal cast is turning over, with new actors taking the roles, due to a time jump. And now, we have our first look at the lead character, Queen Elizabeth II, originally played by Claire Foy and now played Olivia Colman.

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The image isn’t that exciting, to be perfectly honest. It just shows our lead character about to sip a cup of tea. But what it does accomplish is show viewers how Colman will look as Queen Elizabeth II. There’s a lot riding on Colman’s performance. For her work in the first two seasons of “The Crown,” Foy was nominated each year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama at the Primetime Emmy Awards, along with tons of other awards. Needless to say, there are high expectations for the quality of Colman’s performance, and she’ll inevitably be compared to Foy from day 1.

As mentioned, many of the principal cast is changing for seasons 3 and 4 of the series. Joining Colman this year is Tobias Menzies, as Prince Phillip. He is replacing Matt Smith, who had played Phillip in the first two seasons, and is Emmy-nominated himself. Ben Daniels is playing Antony Armstrong-Jones and Helena Bonham Carter is playing Princess Margaret.

Season 3 of “The Crown” is said to take place in the early-‘60s and will begin to cover major pop culture events like the rise of the Beatles and the 1966 World Cup. Production on season 3 is underway now, and it is expected to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2019.