British actress Imelda Staunton will play an older Queen Elizabeth in the final season of “The Crown,” the show’s creator said. The Netflix series about the British royal family will end after five seasons rather than the six seasons originally planned. Executive producer Peter Morgan said, “At the outset I had imagined ‘The Crown’ running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for season five it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop.”
Staunton, best known for playing the the Ministry of Magic official Dolores Umbridge in the “Harry Potter” movies, will take over from Olivia Colman, who is playing the Queen in middle age in season three and the yet-to-be-released fourth season of “The Crown.”
“The Crown” dramatizes key events in the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth, the world’s longest-serving monarch. Claire Foy, as the young queen, and Colman both won Golden Globes for their performances and the series has won multiple awards since it launched in 2016.
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