Imelda Staunton Could Replace Olivia Colman As The Queen
The 63-year-old will reportedly take on the role in seasons five and six
Imelda Staunton is rumoured to be replacing Olivia Colman in seasons five and six of The Crown.
The 63-year-old will reportedly assume the lead role in the hit Netflix show, according to the Daily Mail. Nothing has been confirmed by the streaming channel itself.
Staunton is famed for period dramas, having acted in Vera Drake, Downton Abbey, Shakespeare in Love and Sense and Sensibility. She also played Dolores Umbridge in two of the Harry Potter films.
Olivia Colman made her debut as the Queen last weekend when The Crown was released in its episode entirety on Netflix. Her performance has received positive reviews, praised for her sensitivity and perceived insights into the royal’s world.
It’s thought that series five and six will explore Prince Charles’s split from Diana, Princess of Wales, and the royal family’s consequent fallout with the public. The show refreshes the cast when it explores different time periods to make performances more believable.
The Queen was initially played by Claire Foy, while Matt Smith assumed the role of the Duke of Edinburgh. He was replaced by Tobias Menzies for the most recent series, who disagrees with the show’s negative portrayal of the royal especially in relation to parenthood.
“In the show, we suggest he was a distant father, sometimes even a tyrannical father,” Menzies told us. “I want to defend Philip in this regard. There’s a real contradiction in the end [because] there are also examples that Philip was a pretty hands-on dad, that he was pretty present, and parented with a lot of humour. You see Charles and Philip laughing. So, I can’t really tell where the truth lies.”
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