Why is Claire Foy leaving The Crown and who is replacing her?

Claire Foy leaving The Crown
The Crown Season 3 will go on without Claire Foy. Credit: Netflix

Netflix series The Crown will go into Season 3 without Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II.

The critically acclaimed series has already been renewed for a third and fourth season. The upcoming seasons of the series will cover Queen Elizabeth II’s reign from 1964-76 and due to the timeline, Claire Foy, who is 34, will no longer be the appropriate age to play an older Elizabeth.  

For the third and fourth seasons, Golden Globe-winning actress Olivia Colman, who is ten years Foy’s senior, will take over as the Queen, with Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip. 

Helena Bonham Carter is set to play Princess Margaret. She portrayed Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. 

The showrunner of The Crown, Peter Morgan explained to Screen Daily that recasting the role of Queen Elizabeth II is inevitable due to Claire’s age and they didn’t want to use makeup and special effects to age the actress.  

He said: “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.” 

Filming for The Crown Season 3 has begun, however Netflix is yet to confirm a release date. The third and fourth season are being filmed together. Due to all the recasting, there was a production delay and the series will likely be released later than expected. 

Claire Foy, who was nominated last year for playing a young Elizabeth II in The Crown, won an Emmy for lead actress in a drama for her Season 2 performance. Foy has previously won a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for her portrayal the Queen.

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