Advertisement

The Crown season two: everything you need to know

Photo credit: Robert Viglasky/Netflix
Photo credit: Robert Viglasky/Netflix

From Digital Spy

Fan of period drama or not, it was impossible to deny the quality and appeal of The Crown, Netflix's lavish, smart and emotional series dramatising the reign of Elizabeth II and the impact her rise to power had on her family, her government and her people.

Series writer Peter Morgan is planning to tell the Queen's story over six seasons in total, and here's everything we know so far about the next chapter.

Related: The Crown review: Netflix's ambitious and sprawling epic is a right royal triumph

The Crown season two air date: When can I watch?

The new season will drop on Friday, December 8 - a lovely early Christmas present!

Here's the first trailer for the next batch of episodes, which hints at dark times ahead for the Royals.

The Crown season two cast: Who will star?

Most of the main cast from the first season are expect to return, including Claire Foy (Queen Elizabeth), Matt Smith (Prince Philip), Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret), Victoria Hamilton (the Queen Mother) and Jeremy Northam (Antony Eden).

Joining the returning regulars will be Matthew Goode, playing Lord Snowdon/Antony Armstrong-Jones, the society photographer who romanced and later married Princess Margaret.

Dexter's Michael C Hall will play John F. Kennedy, joined by Quarry's Jodi Balfour as Jackie Kennedy to play the late US President and his First Lady.

Photo credit: Steve Jennings / Getty Images
Photo credit: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

The Crown will reportedly portray JFK as "a natural leader and excellent public speaker, who feels unmanned by his wife's popularity and lets his jealousy surface behind closed doors" – with Balfour's Jackie "a shy woman who loathes public life behind a charming exterior of confidence and glamour".

One potential absentee from the line-up is John Lithgow, who won a series of awards for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the first season. Following the British bulldog's resignation as Prime Minister, he was replaced by Antony Eden – and Claire Foy has lately indicated that Lithgow is "not on set" for the new episodes.

Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix
Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix

"It's awful!" she told Vulture. "Me and Matt [Smith] did a Skype chat the other day and John was there on the end in LA. It was so amazing just to see his face! I just love and miss him so much.

"But saying that, I can't be unfaithful. I do have some amazing new prime ministers - Jeremy Northam, who plays Antony Eden, and then Harold Macmillan – so I'm a very lucky girl."

The Crown season two plot: What happens next?

The first season covered the period between the Queen's marriage to Philip in 1947 to the disintegration of Princess Margaret's engagement to Peter Townsend in 1955.

Season two is expected to follow Liz and the royals from around 1957 through 1964 – which means (spoilers!) that we can expect to see the births of Princes Andrew (born 1960) and Edward (1964).

Rumour has it, the action kicks off with soldiers in Her Majesty's Armed Forces fighting an illegal war in Egypt and climaxes with the downfall of Harold Macmillan as Prime minister.

The new episodes will also focus more on Philip – how his childhood and upbringing "might have impacted him as a man, a father and as Prince Consort" and on his relationship with the young Prince Charles, according to writer Morgan.

Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix
Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix

Going by the time frame, we might also see Philip leaving his wife and family for a world tour – the Duke spent four months aboard the royal yacht on a jaunt to open the Sydney Olympics, with the tabloids fuelling rumours that his long absence put a strain on his marriage.

Margaret's "exciting, dangerous, volatile, dysfunctional relationship" with Snowden will also be a key focus on the new season, with Kirby telling Vanity Fair: "Tony starts this whole trail of a more bohemian life outside. Margaret was best friends with Elizabeth Taylor, and she had loads of American actress friends and singers.

"You see these two worlds collide – her's and Tony's, who is a member of the public and was a creative, liberal, dark horse. Meanwhile, she is this epitome of the establishment."

Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix
Photo credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix

Their wedding in 1960 and the birth of their two children David and Sarah in 1961 and 1964 will also form part of the narrative.

Meanwhile, with Churchill out the door, Eden will be seen occupying number 10 for a brief spell – he resigned as Prime Minister in 1957 after his handling of the Suez crisis was fiercely criticised.

Eden's departure and the Queen's controversial choice to name Harold Macmillan as his successor will also be covered, with Alec Douglas-Home following him as PM from 1963-64, then Harold Wilson from 1964.

"It has a different flavour," producer Suzanne Mackie said of season two. "It feels like the '60s are with us and it has a slight shock of the new."

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

Philip Martin, series director, added: "The first season happened in a bubble; I think that Elizabeth and Phillip and Margaret are all in a world and everybody is in some ways supportive of them. And I think in the second season the world comes crashing in."

These comments were echoed by Claire Foy in July of 2017, with the Golden Globe winner insisting that season two of The Crown feels like a "completely different show".

"The direction the show has gone in is very different and the period of time is moving on, so it does feel very different," she said.

"You really see how amazing it is to put Philip and Elizabeth - their marriage and their world - suddenly into the 1960s. You see how the royal family has to start changing and move with the times and realise that things and people are different, and you start to see the evolution of the modern monarchy."

The Crown season three and beyond: What does the future hold?

With The Crown set to cover off Elizabeth II's entire reign over six seasons, Morgan is planning a time-jump between seasons two and three, and again between seasons four and five.

That means a complete cast overhaul both times, with Foy, Smith et al being replaced with older actors after season two (who will in turn be replaced by even more senior stars after another two years).

"If everyone call pull it off in the way that we hope they can, I think it could be a real televisual feat," Smith told Digital Spy of the planned revamp.

Related: The Crown's Claire Foy is relieved she's only ruling over two seasons of the Netflix hit

"I can't wait to watch it and I just think whoever they get to play that part, they'll be extraordinary because they're an extraordinary team," Foy later echoed. "I will never watch it with any sense of bitterness or regret."

But who could replace Foy and her award-winning lead performance? Morgan confirmed in February 2017 that "conversations" were already underway.

Surely, though, he'd at least approach Helen Mirren and/or Kristin Scott Thomas (both of whom played the Queen in his play The Audience)?

Future seasons will also, of course, introduce Princess Diana as a character – she'll debut towards the end of season three and is said to be "heavily" featured in the fourth and fifth seasons.

Photo credit: Express Newspapers / Getty Images
Photo credit: Express Newspapers / Getty Images

Charles's second wife - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall - will also debut in the third season, which should make for interesting television and no mistake.

Margaret Thatcher and even Donald Trump could end up appearing in The Crown too, according to producer Suzanne Mackie. Any chance Alec Baldwin will get a look-in?


Want up-to-the-minute entertainment and tech news? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.

You Might Also Like