‘The Crown’ Casts Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip

The Crown has a new Prince Philip. Game of Thrones actor and Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce is set to appear in both Seasons 5 and 6 as Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Variety reports.

The actor is taking over the role from Tobias Menzies, who played the prince in Season 3 and Season 4, which is set to premiere on Netflix later this year. Matt Smith previously held the role in Seasons 1 and 2. When Pryce joins The Crown for Season 5, he will be accompanied by Imelda Staunton, the series’ next Queen Elizabeth, and Lesley Manville, Season 5’s Princess Margaret.

Pryce earned an Oscar nomination this year for his role in The Two Popes, playing Pope Francis alongside Anthony Hopkins‘ Pope Benedict. He’s also appeared in Glengarry Glen Ross and Tomorrow Never Dies, and more recently played High Sparrow on Game of Thrones. 

While the fourth upcoming season of The Crown is due later in 2020, fans will have to wait a while to see Pryce in his Season 5 role. The show is taking a filming break — pre-planned and unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic — and won’t be back for its fifth season until 2022, since Netflix won’t being filming until June of next year.

Creator Peter Morgan originally said that Season 5 would be the final installment of The Crown, but he pleased fans when he revealed last month that the show would continue for Season 6, which will be its last season.

“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,” he said at the time. “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.”

Stream The Crown on Netflix