The Crown season 3: Gillian Anderson to play Margaret Thatcher, Netflix confirms

Series three will launch on 17 November this year

Netflix has confirmed that Gillian Anderson will play Margaret Thatcher in the new season of The Crown.

Britain’s first female prime minister will make an appearance in forthcoming episodes, as the series enters its next era.

“I am so excited to be joining the cast and crew of The Crown and to have the opportunity to portray such a complicated and controversial woman,” Anderson said in a statement.

“Thatcher was undoubtedly formidable but I am relishing exploring beneath the surface and, dare I say, falling in love with the icon who, whether loved or despised, defined an era.”

Reports of Anderson’s casting first appeared in January this year.

She will join Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter and Tobias Menzies in the new series, which will be set in the late Seventies.

New star Tobias Menzies revealed to the Radio Times that it will include an episode about the Apollo 11 moon landing, and show how Prince Philip reacted to the momentous event in history.

“We’ve just been shooting a really interesting episode which was all tied into the moon landings in 1969,” he said.

“[Showrunner] Peter [Morgan] has taken this angle that Philip gets very absorbed by the heroism of these men compared to what maybe he hasn’t done with his own life.”

Season three is also expected to cover the decolonisation of Africa and the Caribbean, the birth of Prince Edward (March 1964), and Prince Charles’ movement into the public eye following his coronation as prince of Wales in 1969.

Josh O’Connor, who plays the young prince, said the new series introduces Charles while he is still a student.

“We start off with Charles at Cambridge University, that’s where we bring him into the series,” he said. “This is where we scale a significant part of his life which I feel so honoured and excited to tell the story. And tell a very different side of the story that we may not have seen or have known about.”

Netflix previously announced it is filming the third and fourth seasons back-to-back.

The Crown will return on 17 November 2019.