The Crown Has Found Its Next Queen Elizabeth II

Hear ye, hear ye: by royal decree—well, Netflix’s, anyway—the royal drama The Crown shall have a new queen in its third season. As The Crown jumps forward in time, 33-year-old Claire Foy will be replaced by 43-year-old Olivia Colman, the Broadchurch star who won a 2017 Golden Globe for her performance in The Night Manager. Matt Smith’s replacement as Prince Philip has yet to be announced.

According to Variety, Colman will step in during Seasons 3 and 4. Her first episode will kick off in 1963, per the BBC, when Queen Elizabeth II turned 37. The series, which began its timeline in 1947 and is expected to continue into the present, will likely see more Elizabeths cast before reaching its eventual series finale.

Colman is one of Britain’s most beloved TV actors; Broadchurch, the British crime drama in which Colman has starred for three seasons, ended this year. Last year, Colman’s turn in The Night Manager earned her not only a Golden Globe, but also an Emmy nomination. (Similarly, this year Foy took home both a Golden Globe victory and an Emmy nomination for her performance in The Crown.) Over the years, Colman has also proven an incredible gift for comedy, with performances in Peep Show and, more recently, Fleabag, in which she plays Phoebe Waller Bridge’s evil stepmother. And given the fact that, as BBC points out, Colman has already played royalty—in both Hyde Park on Hudson and next year’s The Favourite—it’s hard to think of a more fitting casting choice.