#The Crown: First Look at Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II

“#The Crown: First Look at Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II”

When The Crown returns for Season 5, Imelda Staunton will be the new face of Queen Elizabeth II.

Netflix on Friday dropped our first look, and it confirms what we all expected:

Staunton is perfect for the role.

Staunton succeeds Claire Foy, who played the role in the first two seasons, and Olivia Colman, who took on the role for the third and fourth seasons.

Other new castings for The Crown Season 5 include Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones) as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager) as Princess Diana, and Dominic West (The Affair) as Prince Charles.

More recently, Jonny Lee Miller joined the drama as John Major, another pivotal figure in British history.

At one point, The Crown Season 5 was set to conclude the series, but the plan changed, and a final, sixth season was ordered.

Series creator Peter Morgan revealed the new end date.

“As we started to discuss the storylines for series five, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons,” he said in a statement.

The same statement also confirmed there would be no significant time jumps to bring us into the present.

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“To be clear, season six will not bring us any closer to present day — it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail,” added Morgan.

Added Cindy Holland, who was Netflix’s VP of original content at the time the final season order was announced, “The Crown keeps raising the bar with each new season.”

“We can’t wait for audiences to see the upcoming fourth season, and we’re proud to support Peter’s vision and the phenomenal cast and crew for a sixth and final season.”

What are your thoughts on the first-look photo?