Matt Smith WILL Play Prince Philip in Netflix’s The Crown!

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Great news for the millions of Eleventh Doctor fans: it’s been confirmed that Matt Smith will play Prince Philip in a ten-part drama, The Crown!

Matt will play the Duke of Edinburgh opposite Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II and (in pleasantly-surprising casting) John Lithgow as Winston Churchill!

The series is based on Peter Morgan’s play, The Audience, which became quite high-profile when Helen Mirren won the Best Actress Olivier award for playing the Queen (again), but also won other awards and received very positive reviews when it debuted in February 2013. Earlier this year, Morgan, who also wrote The Damned United (starring David Tennant), slightly altered the script to reflect the result of the General Election. He’s also written the scripts for The Crown:

“The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century.”

If successful, the show will expand to cover the Queen’s reign until present day, totaling 60 episodes – probably six series of 10 episodes – and will recast roles for their later lives.

The series begins filming this month, and Den of Geek reckons broadcaster Netflix (fresh from the recent success of Daredevil) has spent around $100 million to bring it to screen. So yes, another big budget production with Matt attached. Our boy’s done good, ladies and gentlemen. But then again, who really doubted him?! (Rhetorical, not an invitation to trolls. Frankly, I don’t even bother with the Matt-bashing comments. He’s amazing.)

The Crown begins next year on Netflix.

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