“For the times they are a-changin’” is the refrain that provides the soundtrack to the trailer of The Crown’s third season. The Bob Dylan song signals a time of cultural revolution, of ground-breaking changes and upheavals. This could be said of both the historical era portrayed and the season itself, marked by a new cast and separated by a two-year gap from the release date of the previous season.
How different will it be from what we have seen so far? Hopefully not too different from The Crown many of us have come to know and love. However, in some ways this is a distinct departure from previous years. But rather than mourn the old Crown, I have put together a list of potentially positive things about the new one.
Stellar cast
We will all miss Claire Foy, Matt Smith, and Vanessa Kirby, who were amazing in their leading roles as Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and Princess Margaret respectively, but the new cast is jam-packed with talented and award-winning actors.
It may be hard for some viewers to separate her from Peep Show’s Sophie Chapman, not the most classy character, but Olivia Colman has proven her diverse range and has now portrayed at least three different queens: she played the Queen Mother in the 2012 film Hyde Park on the Hudson, and recently won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Anne in The Favourite.
Tobias Menzies, formerly of historical adventure Outlander, joins the cast as Prince Philip. While Matt Smith has added the perfect comedic touch to a character who is at times both irritable and irritating, Menzies is also no stranger to playing complex characters, and we will hopefully see him using the gravitas for which he is well known while likewise showing a more humorous side of Philip.
Helena Bonham Carter, who coincidentally has also once played the Queen Mother, will play Princess Margaret. Although Bonham Carter humbly says, “I’m not sure which I’m more terrified about—doing justice to the real Princess Margaret or following in the shoes of Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret,” there is no doubt this accomplished actress will bring something new and creative to the role. Her quirkiness as seen in many Tim Burton films will probably serve her well as she portrays the intelligent and jaded princess.
Is that Game of Thrones’ Tywin Lannister we can glimpse in the Season 3 trailer? Surely, he will strengthen the monarchy, bending the country to his iron will. Well… maybe not. Charles Dance joins the cast as Louis Mountbatten, a controversial historical figure perhaps best known for “giving away India.” Up until now, he has been a very minor character, but it would be interesting to see him get more screen time.
Prince Charles takes on a major role
https://youtu.be/vLXYfgpqb8A
Prince Charles as a child was fairly marginal to the plot of Seasons 1 and 2, although as mentioned above he was central to one of the best episodes so far. Season 3 opens with Charles (Josh O’Connor) in his university years.
“This is where we scale a significant part of his life,” says O’Connor in an interview with RadioTimes.com, “which I feel so honoured and excited to tell the story. And tell a very different side of the story that we may not have seen or have known about.”
Prince Charles has been primarily known all over the world as “that jerkball who cheated on Lady Di”, but he has a much better reputation in his home country, where his charity work and his sensitive personality are appreciated by many.
The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan has strongly hinted at a debunking of some common misconceptions and revealing a more in-depth and less tabloid-mongering version of the Prince of Wales, not to mention the captivating drama in store for his on-screen character.
“People always assume Charles cheated on Diana with Camilla,” says Morgan, “It’s absolutely the wrong way round. He was deeply in love with Camilla and forced to marry Diana.”
Major historical events
Season 3 will cover 1964-1977, a turbulent time for the House of Windsor. It includes the tenure of anti-royalist Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the decolonization of Africa, and the Apollo 11 moon landing, which although not traumatic in itself is bound to make Prince Philip feel even more emasculated as he compares himself to the daring astronauts.
In the royal family itself, many significant events are also to come, from Charles’ first meeting with Camilla Parker Bowles, to Princess Margaret’s divorce from Lord Snowdon. Fortunately, Elizabeth’s marriage will be on safer ground as she experiences a better relationship with her husband following the rocky events of the past two seasons.
More binge-worthy format
Peter Morgan, creator and writer of The Crown, has made a career out of dramatizing real life stories such as the political drama Frost/Nixon, or Formula One biopic Rush. With Netflix, he may have found the perfect medium for his gripping drama.
According to Variety, Peter Morgan remarked on Netflix viewers’ tendency to watch more than one episode at a time, two-and-a-half on average, and how he has factored that into the new season.
“It makes you look at the way a season might flow in a different way,” says Morgan, “I’m finding I’m thinking differently to how I would have done in a pre-Netflix, pre-streaming age.”
With an epic show like The Crown, going through an entire decade of events in one evening might be too much, but it will be hard to resist indulging in more than one of its well-written and visually resplendent episodes.
Season 3 of The Crown premieres November 17, 2019.
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