The Crown season 4 character preview: Queen Elizabeth

What will The Crown season 4 have in store for Queen Elizabeth?

It’s been a long time since we saw new episodes of The Crown on Netflix. To help refresh your memory, we’re previewing each character’s journey in The Crown before season 4 premieres on Nov. 15, starting with Queen Elisabeth II, played by Olivia Colman.

The Crown season 3 was the first season with Colman starring as the Queen. Claire Foy starred as Queen Elizabeth II during the first two seasons of the series. Foy exited the series after season 2.

The Crown planned for the casting change at the beginning of the series. As the show spans decades of the Monarchy, The Crown wanted those playing the characters to be closer to the age of the person during the time period depicted in the series.

Before we can go forward, let’s take a look at what happened to Queen Elizabeth in The Crown season 3.

What happened to Queen Elizabeth at the end of The Crown season 3?

A lot went down in The Crown season 3. It covered about 13 years in the life of the Queen beginning in 1964 and ending in 1977.

Throughout the season, we saw the Queen go through a lot, but we really only care about all that family the drama. Season 3 delivers a lot of that. Most importantly, we see it all come to a head when the queen mother and other family members help orchestrate the marriage of Camila Shand and Andrew Parker Bowles. They ship Princess Charles off, as well, which effectively ends his romance with Camila (for now).

The end of The Crown season 3 brings us one of the best moments of the series. For three seasons, basically, there’s been this push-and-pull with the Queen figuring out what the role of Queen actually is.

She is often caught up in the rollercoaster ride that it is running a country as the figurehead and feels despondent about her life’s work being a massive failure.

By the season’s end, she’s figured it out after a very positive conversation with her sister, Princess Margaret, played by Helena Bonham Carter. Margaret explains that the Queen’s role is simply to paper over the cracks in society to create an illusion and win over the minds and hearts by bringing that stability.

“There is only one queen,” Margaret says, and that’s the moment it seems to click for Elizabeth II as she celebrates her Silver Jubilee.

So, that’s where things end for Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown season 3.