The first image of Olivia Colman asQueen Elizabeth IIin the upcoming third season ofThe Crowndropped on Monday. And now the hit Netflix show has released a peek at Helena Bonham Carter as the British monarch’s rebellious andsometimes controversial younger sisterPrincess Margaret.
Early Wednesday, the show’s official Twitter account sent out a picture of Bonham Carter, 51, on the show.
Netflix captioned the shot simply, “Hope.”
Later, the streaming service sent out a shot of Ben Daniels as Margaret’s husband Antony Armstrong-Jones (a.k.a. Lord Snowden), captioning it “Hurt.”
The show’s creator, Peter Morgan, decided to recast the roles rather than attempt to make the current actors look older with makeup.He previously toldVarietyof the decision, “You can’t ask someone to act middle-aged. Someone has to bring their own fatigue to it. The feelings we all have as 50-year-olds are different than the feelings we all have as 30-year-olds.”
Rumors of Bonham Carter’s casting first spread in January, withEntertainment Weeklyreporting she was near a deal. She was reportedly first being considered for the role ofQueen Elizabeth, but it was decided that Margaret would be a better fit for the star.
The two-time Oscar nominee certainly has the pedigree to play the role ofQueen Elizabeth’syounger, rebellious sister. TheHarry PotterandHoward’s Endactress played Margaret’s mom, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in the2010 movieThe King’s Speech(Ironically, so has Coleman, who took on the part in 2012’sHyde Park on Hudson).
Bonham Carter’sCrownlinks continue with her grandmother Violet, who was one of Churchill’s closest female friends. Violet was the daughter of former Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and was a formidable politician herself, serving as the President of the Liberal Party between 1945 and 1947. In 1915, she married her father’s Principal Private Secretary Sir Maurice Bonham Carter. Their son Raymond is Helena’s father.
Mike Lawn/Fox Photos/Getty; Dave Benett/Getty
Difficulty of a life in the public eye captured so well in the first two seasons ofThe Crownis not lost on Bonham Carter either.
“I’ve always had respect for them as individuals,” Bonham Carter told PEOPLE of the royal family in 2011 while promotingThe King’s Speech. “I’ve never had any envy for that kind of life. The sheer amount of duty! You also don’t have too much personal freedom. It is a gift to know how to be a public figure.”
That doesn’t mean playing Princess Margaret came easy. In June, Bonham Carter revealed she was still polishing up her accent for the role.
“I’m posh, but not that posh!” she joked when asked if the royal’s accent would come easy for her during an appearance on theGraham Norton Show.She added, “I’ve got two weeks to prepare so I’ve got to find her character soon.”
source: people.com
