The Royals and Company: The Cast Thread

[latetotheparty]

I have to say I’m not thrilled with much of the casting of S3. But the worst is Prince Charles. All I see when I look at him is Kylo Ren with bad posture. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 11/2/2019 at 10:24 AM, Brn2bwild said:

Does anyone else think that after two years, the show will just stick with this cast?  I think Olivia Coleman, Tobias Menzies, and Helena Bonham-Carter could be aged up for the 80s and 90s, and the show would avoid another painfully long period of recasting. 

No official casting yet (they're still shooting S4) but supposedly Imelda Staunton will play Elizabeth in S5-S6 (obviously take this with a grain of salt until there's an official announcement).

[BooBear]

I love most of the new cast with the exception of Helena Bonham Carter. She just doesn't look or act like Margaret.  I did agree that the recasting of former King Nazi didn't work. I think Alex Jennings should have stayed on. 

I like the actors playing both Charles and Anne. They really capture their essence even if they don't look a lot like them. 

[Umbelina]

The Crown Has Not Cast Its Next Queen Elizabeth After All

But if not Imelda Staunton, then who?

BY 

YOHANA DESTA

“We are currently filming season four of The Crown, but have not commissioned any further seasons as yet, therefore any news on casting remains pure speculation,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Variety.

The U.K. is certainly not short on actors who could fill the role, but don’t hold your breath for one in particular:Helen Mirren. The actor has long seemed like the heir apparent to the part. She picked up an Oscar for her portrayal of the queen in 2006’s The Queen (written by The Crown creator Peter Morgan). She also won a Tony in 2015 for playing the queen in Morgan’s play The Audience. While she may seem like a natural to take the mantle again (I mean, might as well win an Emmy for the same role and complete this royal triumvirate), Mirren has batted away the question on numerous occasions, claiming it would be “more interesting” to watch another actor try on the part. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of a thousand British actors practicing their posh accents, readying themselves for the role of a lifetime now that pesky Miss Mirren’s outta the way.

[Capricasix]

I found this on Youtube and wanted to share it here. Apologies if it’s already been posted!

[AZChristian]

I just got the DVD of "The Favourite" out of the library.  Can't wait to see Olivia in another regal role.

[Umbelina]

44 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I just got the DVD of "The Favourite" out of the library.  Can't wait to see Olivia in another regal role.

She's much, much better in that one.  Although the incredibly odd soundtrack may drive you as crazy as it did me.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Claire Foy is in the 2020 Pirelli calendar

[One Tough Cookie]

I guess I am the only viewer who thinks the new, older queen looks like Carol Burnett doing a sketch and I keep waiting for her to do some kind of breakaway line/act but I realize YMMV.

[LeGrandElephant]

I’m only now binging this show and the jump from season 2 to season 3 casts was sudden and bizarre and made no sense. The last episode of season 2 has a time stamp saying 1962. I expected the new cast to come with a time jump of at least ten years, maybe closer to twenty, given how much older Olivia Colman looks than Claire Foy. But then, the first episode of season 3 has a time stamp that says 1964 - only two years later than the previous episode! But suddenly everyone looks completely different and twenty years older. What a bizarre choice to replace everyone with completely different and much older actors when time has only moved forward two years. We are watching it and talking about the twilight zone and invasion of the body snatchers. It’s completely distracting from the plot of season 3, I have no idea what’s going on or who anyone is. Why change the cast if they weren’t going to jump at least ten years? 

 

(Oh but Churchill is still the same actor)

[Umbelina]

WARNING, don't click if you don't want to see a couple of season 4 cast members

See The Cast Of The Crown Vs. The People They Play In Real Life

 

(all 4 season's cast represented here, with side by side photos of the real people, and short bios.) 

Kind of interesting.  For example:

Dang, there IS something quite sexy about the real Peter Townsend.  It even comes through in a still photo, add in war hero, great with horses, and the rest and I can see why Margaret fell for him.

Edited January 8, 2020 by Umbelina

[PeterPirate]

Just for fun, a parody of Olivia Colman.

 

 

[buttersister]

Congratulations to the cast for winning the SAG Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble In a Drama Series.

[Brn2bwild]

I'd like to give a shout out to the 2008-2011 series Lark Rise to Candleford, which is streaming now on Hulu.  It's filled with pre-The Crown alum: specifically the actors who played Peter Townsend, older Anthony Armstrong Jones, and the Queen Mother (S1 and S2).  And also Mr. Bates pre-Downton Abbey!  

[PeterPirate]

Finn Elliot (Young Phillip) played the son of the lead character in season 4 of The Last Kingdom.  He did a good job of it, too. 

Edited May 2, 2020 by PeterPirate

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The Young Vic’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson, Vanessa Kirby, and Ben Foster

 

[Ellaria]

Interested to see who will be chosen to play Phil in Season 5 and the recently reinstated Season 6. Charles Dance would have been an excellent choice but he is our current Lord Mountbatten.

Bill Nighy? Hugh Laurie? Who else?

 

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, Ellaria Sand said:

Interested to see who will be chosen to play Phil in Season 5 and the recently reinstated Season 6. Charles Dance would have been an excellent choice but he is our current Lord Mountbatten.

Bill Nighy? Hugh Laurie? Who else?

 

Should have been Charles Dance, hands down!!!!  I was really unhappy that he wasn't available, after playing Mountbatten.

Nighy could do it.  Timothy Carlton (Benedict Cumberbatch's father) is 80, but too cheerful looking.

[ProudMary]

5 hours ago, Ellaria Sand said:

Interested to see who will be chosen to play Phil in Season 5 and the recently reinstated Season 6. Charles Dance would have been an excellent choice but he is our current Lord Mountbatten.

Bill Nighy? Hugh Laurie? Who else?

 

James Cromwell did a great job playing Prince Philip in The Queen back in 2006. I don't know if he'd want to reprise the role years later or even if Peter Morgan would want to go down that path again but he's definitely a good option in my book.

I agree that Bill Nighy could definitely do a good job. 

Thinking a bit outside the box, how about Peter Capaldi?

[Ellaria]

11 hours ago, AZChristian said:

Timothy Carlton (Benedict Cumberbatch's father) is 80, but too cheerful looking.

7 hours ago, ProudMary said:

James Cromwell did a great job playing Prince Philip in The Queen back in 2006. I don't know if he'd want to reprise the role years later or even if Peter Morgan would want to go down that path again but he's definitely a good option in my book.

I agree that Bill Nighy could definitely do a good job. 

Thinking a bit outside the box, how about Peter Capaldi?

Either Carlton or Cromwell would do a good job. Both are 80 years old, however, and I wonder if they would cast someone that is closer in age to Imelda Staunton who is 64. There is only a five year age difference between Betty and Phil.

Maybe Richard E. Grant?

Stephen Dillane seemed perfect for it but then I remembered that he played Graham Sutherland in S1.

 

[Umbelina]

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a29385026/princess-diana-the-crown-pink-dress/

 

Looks like they nailed Diana!  I don't know the actress, can she act?  One of the few things I enjoyed in season 3 was the new adult Charles, and of course Anne.  

Hopefully they will let Coleman smile and emote a bit in season 4, instead of being completely wooden.

[Ellaria]

3 hours ago, Umbelina said:

Looks like they nailed Diana!  I don't know the actress, can she act?  One of the few things I enjoyed in season 3 was the new adult Charles, and of course Anne.  

Hopefully they will let Coleman smile and emote a bit in season 4, instead of being completely wooden.

I’m not familiar with the actress. However, for me, casting has not been an issue in the past three seasons. I blame the writing for the flaws in S3.

[Ellaria]

Version #3 of Prince Philip will be Jonathan Pryce. That works!

https://deadline.com/2020/08/jonathan-pryce-cast-as-prince-philip-the-crown-1203011673/

[ruby24]

Elizabeth Debicki will be Diana in the last two seasons!

Omg, almost too perfect.

[dubbel zout]

1 minute ago, ruby24 said:

Elizabeth Debicki will be Diana in the last two seasons!

Omg, almost too perfect.

It really is! 

I LOVE her.

[katie9918]

Did I miss the announcement for when season four is hitting? 
 

The casting news is fine, but I can’t get excited about it without a firm date for season four, let alone seasons five or six.

[LilWharveyGal]

4 hours ago, ruby24 said:

Elizabeth Debicki will be Diana in the last two seasons!

Everyone else is going to need a box to stand on.

[AZChristian]

49 minutes ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Everyone else is going to need a box to stand on.

Yikes! 

I remember Diana being the same height as Charles in real life, so it didn't seem like it would be a problem if that same situation existed on the show.  But I just looked her up on IMDB.  She's 6' 3"!!!!

[ruby24]

2 hours ago, katie9918 said:

Did I miss the announcement for when season four is hitting? 
 

The casting news is fine, but I can’t get excited about it without a firm date for season four, let alone seasons five or six.

I read that Season 4 drops on Nov 17th

[MissLucas]

Debicki is taller than Diana but Josh O'Connor is also taller than Charles. If the internet can be trusted then there's only 5cm between him and Debicki.

[ProudMary]

3 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Debicki is taller than Diana but Josh O'Connor is also taller than Charles. If the internet can be trusted then there's only 5cm between him and Debicki.

Josh O'Connor will be playing Charles to Emma Corrin's Diana in the upcoming Season 4.  According to IMDb, Corrin is 5'8" to O'Connor's 6'1".  We haven't yet heard (at least I don't think we have) who will be playing Prince Charles in Seasons 5 and 6, so we'll have to wait and see what actor plays Charles to Elizabeth Debicki's Diana.

3 hours ago, ruby24 said:

I read that Season 4 drops on Nov 17th

Do you recall where you read that? I've been reading through various news stories from 8/15 & 8/16 on Elizabeth Debicki's casting as Diana, from the US, the UK and Australia (Debicki's native land) and every one of them says that no premiere date of season four has yet been announced. 🤷‍♀️

Edited to add: Just to get an idea from another Netflix show, I'm a Lucifer watcher. The new season of Lucifer drops on Netflix, this coming Friday, August 21st and Netflix tweeted out the premiere date on June 21st, exactly two months before. I'm assuming we'll have a premiere date for The Crown sometime in September, if it's dropping in November. 

Edited August 17, 2020 by ProudMary
Typo.

[ruby24]

4 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Do you recall where you read that? I've been reading through various news stories from 8/15 & 8/16 on Elizabeth Debicki's casting as Diana, from the US, the UK and Australia (Debicki's native land) and every one of them says that no premiere date of season four has yet been announced. 🤷‍♀️

It says it at the bottom of this Esquire article on Josh O'Connor.

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, ruby24 said:

It says it at the bottom of this Esquire article on Josh O'Connor.

Cool. I consider Esquire to be a good source. I'm going to mark my calendar for November 17th! Perhaps they really do know something that others don't! Netflix usually likes to tweet out the news themselves. I wonder if the Esquire interviewer picked up the info while working on the piece on Josh O'Connor and it was supposed to be embargoed?

Great pick-up @ruby24!

 

I thought it would be great to have all of these in one place.

 

 

[ruby24]

Just waiting on Prince Charles and Tony Blair!

[ProudMary]

6 minutes ago, ruby24 said:

Just waiting on Prince Charles and Tony Blair!

Yes, I've been waiting on the Tony Blair casting especially. I love Michael Sheen, but I do think he's just a bit too old now to play a 1990s version of Tony Blair a third time! Time for some new blood in that role.

[Brn2bwild]

I'm so confused by The Crown's tweets: at first it says Season 5 is the last one, then it says Seasons 5 and 6 twice.  Were they granted another season after all?

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, Brn2bwild said:

I'm so confused by The Crown's tweets: at first it says Season 5 is the last one, then it says Seasons 5 and 6 twice.  Were they granted another season after all?

Yes. In January when Imelda Staunton was cast and that tweet was sent, they were still operating under the assumption that they were only doing five seasons. Then, in July, it was announced that they were going back to the originally anticipated six seasons.
See this post from the media thread:
https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/30868-the-crown-in-the-media/?do=findComment&comment=6221294

 

[ProudMary]

On 8/16/2020 at 11:47 PM, ruby24 said:

It says it at the bottom of this Esquire article on Josh O'Connor.

Turns out that Esquire was off by two days and Season 4 of The Crown will premiere on Nov. 15th. It really makes me wonder if Esquire was correct all along and Netflix thought, "Oh no, you don't," and bumped up the date by two days. Guess we'll never know.

 

[dubbel zout]

November 15 is a Sunday, and I believe that's when Season 3, at least, dropped. Netflix might have given Esquire the wrong date on purpose, which seems dumb but also something done to not steal Netflix's thunder.

[AZChristian]

19 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

November 15 is a Sunday, and I believe that's when Season 3, at least, dropped. Netflix might have given Esquire the wrong date on purpose, which seems dumb but also something done to not steal Netflix's thunder.

Yes, Season 3 dropped on a Sunday.  I've already told Mr. AZC that I'm bingeing season 4 on 11/15.  And I will follow my usual tradition of re-bingeing all the earlier seasons in the week before 11/15.

[7-Zark-7]

They haven't cast Camilla yet for Seasons 5 and 6. I think Siobhan Finneran looks the part, but I've never seen her play posh.

Also, Andrew and Fergie haven't been announced. Andrew could be any number of actors, he's not very disntinctive. Fergie however... hmm.

[Ohiopirate02]

3 hours ago, 7-Zark-7 said:

They haven't cast Camilla yet for Seasons 5 and 6. I think Siobhan Finneran looks the part, but I've never seen her play posh.

Also, Andrew and Fergie haven't been announced. Andrew could be any number of actors, he's not very disntinctive. Fergie however... hmm.

With regards to Andrew and later Fergie, I read a stray sentence in an article about the casting of different seasons, and it pretty much stated that while Andrew will appear in season 4 and beyond, they are not going to be any big announcements about his casting.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out Peter Morgan tried to write the show without including him, but was unable to.  This does suck for the actors though.  

[AZChristian]

5 hours ago, 7-Zark-7 said:

They haven't cast Camilla yet for Seasons 5 and 6. I think Siobhan Finneran looks the part, but I've never seen her play posh.

Good idea!  Come to think of it, Camilla doesn't seem posh (although she dresses the part).  Maybe we don't need a posh person to play her.

[Milburn Stone]

Just finished Series 3 of Unforgotten. Alex Jennings is amazing in it.

[Umbelina]

On 10/29/2020 at 5:55 AM, Ohiopirate02 said:

With regards to Andrew and later Fergie, I read a stray sentence in an article about the casting of different seasons, and it pretty much stated that while Andrew will appear in season 4 and beyond, they are not going to be any big announcements about his casting.  I wouldn't be surprised to find out Peter Morgan tried to write the show without including him, but was unable to.  This does suck for the actors though.  

I think it's pretty obvious that the seasons from now one will be Diana-centric, or Royals reacting to Diana, etc.  

I can't imagine them not casting Fergie!  She and Diana were close, and were able to have talks about the "Firm" which would be quite handy for writers.  There is also the fact that the family, especially the Queen, initially preferred Fergie to Diana, which again, some great story possibilities there.  Add in their falling out?  Again...good stories.

However, I can see them wanting to completely avoid Andrew, for obvious reasons.  

The possible solution (and likely one to me) is that Andrew won't have much, if anything to do, Fergie will be the focus, specifically Fergie interacting the the other royals, and Diana.  I seriously doubt they will go into much of the Fergie/Andrew marriage or home life though.  The pregnancies?  Sure, but Andrew doesn't have to be in those scenes, or if he is?  Needn't have lines.

Edited October 31, 2020 by Umbelina
clarified

[7-Zark-7]

Yes, I don't think they can get around having a sizeable amount of Fergie in at least one episode given the frenemy angle with Diana, and the press intrusion in her marriage. Duchess Sarah has supposedly said she'd like it if Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza from Poldark) played her in the series. Not exactly the right body type, given the "Duchess of Pork" jabs from the press, but I suppose they could pad her or something. I think she could pull off Sarah's round the way girl of the horsey set vibe.

[Capricasix]

Pip Torrens (Tommy Lascelles) is in a new series called Roadkill, on Masterpiece. He plays a newspaper editor. I didn’t recognize him at first because he’s bald and clean-shaven, but then I heard his voice and knew it was him.

Roadkill also stars Hugh Laurie and Iain de Caestecker (Agent Fitz on Agents of SHIELD).

Edited November 2, 2020 by Capricasix

[AZChristian]

14 hours ago, Capricasix said:

Pip Torrens (Tommy Lascelles) is in a new series called Roadkill, on Masterpiece. He plays a newspaper editor. I didn’t recognize him at first because he’s bald and clean-shaven, but then I heard his voice and knew it was him.

Roadkill also stars Hugh Laurie and Iain de Caestecker (Agent Fitz on Agents of SHIELD).

Pip also didn't have that posh accent we're accustomed to.  He was really good in the role, showing a lot more emotion (like anger) than Tommy ever did.  

Edited November 2, 2020 by AZChristian
"Posh" . . . not "post."

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 11/1/2020 at 1:24 AM, 7-Zark-7 said:

Yes, I don't think they can get around having a sizeable amount of Fergie in at least one episode given the frenemy angle with Diana, and the press intrusion in her marriage. Duchess Sarah has supposedly said she'd like it if Eleanor Tomlinson (Demelza from Poldark) played her in the series. Not exactly the right body type, given the "Duchess of Pork" jabs from the press, but I suppose they could pad her or something. I think she could pull off Sarah's round the way girl of the horsey set vibe.

This woman is beautiful!  She should play Tori Amos in a Tori Amos biopic 🙂

I've only watched 401 but I'm in love with Josh O'Connor now 😕

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[GHScorpiosRule]

Two things because I haven’t paid attention to what was casting news/comings and goings, so I was THRILLED to see Dominic Rowan as Charles, (don’t know what his position is in Thatcher’s team)! Because I loved him as Jacob in Law & Order: U.K. He was the British counterpart to the mothership’s Jack McCoy!

And I was also excited to see Claire Foy again!!!