The Crown season 3: The cast, plot and Netflix release date

Season 3 isn't set to debut until 2019, although it will be shot back-to-back with season 4

Long live the Queen.

Netflix's The Crown has become one of the streaming giant's centrepiece jewels; a lush, drama-filled examination of the events behind Buckingham Palace's closed doors during Queen Elizabeth II's reign.

We still have a long way to go before the series catches up with the modern day, though season 3 will see a revamped cast to keep up with the passing of history.

Here's everything we know about the new episodes.

Release Date

No official date has been confirmed, though it's been revealed that season 3 won't premiere until 2019.

Cast

This season will feature a completely new central cast to reflect the passing of time.

"After two seasons, that's it, I'm gone," Claire Foy, who previously played Queen Elizabeth, told Vulture in 2016. "They're getting rid of all of us. I don't [know] how they're planning on doing it, but they're such an incredible bunch of directors and producers that it's gonna be different and exciting."

Broadchurch star Olivia Colman will now step in as Queen Elizabeth, with Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, replacing Vanessa Kirby and Matt Smith respectively. Season 3 and 4 will be shot back-to-back.

Paul Bettany was originally set to play the role of Philip, but was forced to drop out due to the time commitment required, hinting he may still be wrapped up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“What’s so beautiful about Claire is her youth,” series creator Peter Morgan told Variety ahead of the first season. “You can’t ask someone to act middle-aged. Someone has to bring their own fatigue to it. The feelings we all have as 50-year-olds are different than the feelings we all have as 30-year-olds. That informs everything we do.”

Plot

Since season 2 closed with the birth of Prince Edward in 1964, Vanity Fair predicted the season will span from about 1971 to 1979: covering "the Wilson era", which marks Harold Wilson's time as prime minister from 1964 to 1970, then again 1974 to 1976.

Significant events during the period include Princess Margaret's divorce from the Earl of Snowdon. First married in 1960, the pair were rumoured to have had numerous affairs over the course of their marriage, with Margaret eventually falling in love with Roddy Llewellyn, the 25-year-old son of Olympic gold medal-winning showjumper Sir Harry Llewellyn.

The season may also cover the 1972 miners' strike and resulting power crisis, the declining influence of the royal family in Canada, the unmasking of the former curator of the Queen's art collection as a Soviet spy, the assassination of Lord Mountbatten by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and the death of the Duke of Windsor.

Though Diana first met Charles in 1977, casting director Nina Gold confirmed to Vanity Fair that she won't feature until season 3.

Camilla Parker Bowles will, however, make her first appearance here. Charles met her, then Camilla Shand, at a polo match in 1971 and the pair dated until he left for the Royal Navy in 1973.

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