“This country was still great when I came to the throne. All that’s happened on my watch is the place has fallen apart.”
Posted on October 21, 2019, at 10: 00 am ET
Netflix released the first full trailer for the upcoming third season ofThe Crownon Monday, offering fans of the lavish period drama their first real look at the new set of actors playing the British royal family.
Set to a haunting cover of Bob Dylan’s 1964 folk song “The Times They Are a-Changin ‘ , “the trailer shows a family – and a country – struggling to keep up with the pace of change in the 1960 s and ’70 s.
Not only has the cast changed in this third season – a decision made so that the actors properly reflect the ages of the characters they’re playing – but so have the problems of Queen Elizabeth (Oscar winnerOlivia Colman), which are very different in nature from those she encountered in the 1940 s and ’50 s. There are mining strikes, economic crises, and the arrival of a Labor prime minister, Harold Wilson (Jason Watkins), whom Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) believes wants to do away with the royals altogether.
The trailer opens in 1977 with the Queen marking her Silver Jubilee, the 25 th anniversary of her ascension to the throne, which was explored in Season 1. But the celebrations have left her feeling introspective, rather than joyful. “On days like today,” she says, “ask yourself: In the time I’ve been on the throne, what have I actually achieved?”
Sophie Mutevelian / Netflix
In addition to worries of feeling partly responsible for the country paling in comparison to its former glory – the British pound is deteriorating in value, and a mining disaster challenges the Queen to be more human and not just a symbol – she must also take on the problems of the royal family.
SonCharles (Josh O’Connor)has taken interest in a woman named Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell), and seems to be comparing himself to his uncle Edward, who abdicated the throne because he wanted to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. “Am I listened to in this family?” Charles shouts at his mother at one point in the trailer. “Am I seen for who and what I am? No!”
There’s also drama withPrincessMargaret (Helena Bonham Carter), who seems to not be coping too well playing second fiddle to her sister, as her marriage toAntony Armstrong-Jones (Ben Daniels)struggles.
“This country was still great when I came to the throne, “the Queen says wistfully in the trailer. “All that’s happened on my watch is the place has fallen apart.”
“You cannot flinch,” responds Margaret. “It’s only fallen apart if we say it has. That’s the thing about the monarchy. We paper over the cracks.”
Sophie Mutevelian / Netflix
In a feature forEntertainment Weeklypublished in August, Colman joked that she “got the worst job in the world” because “everyone loves Claire Foy,” who played the queen in the show’s first two seasons.
But if it’s any consolation for Colman, show creator Peter Morgan told EW that “Olivia Colman was a list of one” – meaning she was the only person he envisioned taking over the central character of the series after Foy.
See how it all unfolds when the third season ofThe Crownpremieres on Nov. 17.
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