Netflix Just Gave Us Our First Look at ’The Crown’ Season Five’s Queen Elizabeth (AKA Imelda Staunton)

Published Jul 30, 2021

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4:06pm

Move over, Olivia Colman. There’s a new Queen Elizabeth in town, and she came all the way from Hogwarts.

On Friday, Netflix dropped the first photo of Imelda Staunton as the 95-year-old monarch for the upcoming fifth season of The Crown. The image was released on the official social media accounts of the popular Netflix series. “An early glimpse of our new Queen Elizabeth II, Imelda Staunton,” the post’s caption read.

In the photo, we see Staunton Her Majesty standing in her chambers while sporting her iconic hairstyle and a yellow-patterned bow-tie blouse. Of course, we couldn’t help but notice she was rocking her signature pearls.

We learned back in January of 2020 that the 65-year-old actress was taking Colman’s place. In an interview with Deadline, series creator Peter Morgan said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to confirm Imelda Staunton as Her Majesty The Queen. Imelda is an astonishing talent and will be a fantastic successor to Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.”

While we don’t know too much about the plot, the upcoming season is set during John Major's tenure as England's prime minister. (If you forgot, the season four finale ended with Margaret Thatcher's resignation in 1990.)

The Harry Potter actress isn’t the only face coming to seasons five and six. Lesley Manville is swapping in for Helena Bonham-Carter as Princess Margaret, Dominic West will replace Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki will take over for Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana and Jonathan Pryce will cover Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip.

Unfortunately, we won’t be getting the new installment until 2022 (although, no official release date has been set). Until then, we’re hoping for glimpses of the other cast members in their roles.

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Alexandra Hough

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