‘The Crown’ Casts Its Prince Charles, Queen Mother for Season 3 (Exclusive)

Season three of Netflix’s The Crown continues to come into focus.

The Peter Morgan drama has found its new actors to take over the central roles of Prince Charles and the Queen Mother as the series recasts its stars for the next two seasons.

Josh O’Connor (Florence Foster Jenkins) and Marion Bailey (Allied) will take over the roles of Prince Charles and the Queen Mother, respectively. They replace Julian Baring and Victoria Hamilton in the roles.

“This is going to take Queen Elizabeth from age 29 to, presumably, the current day. We’ll see it lay out over decades,” Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said in 2016 of the six-season plan for the series. “The idea is to do this over six decades in six seasons presumably, and make the whole show [run] over eight to 10 years.”

“I am thrilled to be joining The Firm for the next installment of The Crown,” O’Connor said. “Seasons three and four will follow some of the most turbulent events in the Prince of Wales’ life and our national story, and I’m excited to be bringing to life the man in the midst of it all. I’m very aware it’s a formidably talented family to be joining but reliably informed I have the ears for the part and will fit right in.”

Added Bailey: “Wonderful to be joining The Crown. It’s a brilliant show, and we have a tough act to follow, but what a gift to be playing the fascinating and greatly loved Queen Mother. Thrilled to be on board and working with such a top-notch team.”

O’Connor and Bailey join a new cast that includes Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II (replacing Claire Foy); Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip (replacing Matt Smith) and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret (in for Vanessa Kirby), among others.

Still to be cast is the role of Princess Diana, which producers confirmed would be introduced toward the end of the third season and will be featured heavily in the fourth and as-yet-unofficial fifth seasons.

The second season of The Crown ended with the birth of Elizabeth and Philip’s fourth child, Prince Edward, in 1964. That season began shortly after where the first left off, and showrunner Morgan confirmed that the plan remains the same for the third.

The U.K.’s Sunday Times reported that the third season will focus on “the Wilson era,” aka the 1964-1970 and 1974-1976 terms of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and the fourth will focus on Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana.

O’Connor (God’s Own Country) is repped by CAA and Independent Talent Group in the U.K. Bailey (Mr. Turner, Vera Drake) is with the U.K.’s Gardner Herrity.