The Crown hires Jonathan Pryce to play Prince Philip in seasons 5 and 6 of the Netflix drama
Gifted Welsh actor will take over the role of the prince when it begins filming in 2021.
Oscar-nominated Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce will take over the role of Prince Philip in the final seasons five and six of The Crown on Netflix.
Pryce, 73, was a Best Actor Oscar nominee in 2019 for his performance as Pope Francis in the Netflix movie The Two Popes, opposite fellow Welshman Anthony Hopkins. Other performances of note by the highly-respected star of stage and screen include the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, the lead role of Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam's classic 1985 sci-fi movie Brazil and the former president of Argentina, Juan Perón, opposite Madonna in Evita in 1996.
Deadline originally reported that Pryce would take over the role from Tobias Menzies, who plays the Duke of Edinburgh in season four of The Crown, which will screen later in 2020.
Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith played Prince Philip in seasons one and two.
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Pryce will play Prince Philip opposite Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, who takes over the role from Olivia Colman. The other key role in the final two seasons is Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret.
Seasons five and six of The Crown will cover Britain as it enters the new Millennium with the Royals at one of their lowest points following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Netflix originally intended to end The Crown after five seasons, but changed its mind in July. Writer Peter Morgan was the catalyst for the additional season and said that the change to The Crown did not mean the series would cover more years than had previously been decided.
Morgan said: “As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, 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.
“To be clear, Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day – it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”
Production on The Crown season five has been delayed by the pandemic and Netflix announced it was scheduled for 2022.
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