Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham Carter have company. Lesley Manville, who received an Oscar nomination for her work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, will be the third and final actress Princess Margaret during the final season of Netflix’s The Crown. Manville joins a cast that already includes Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II.
“I could not be happier to be playing Princess Margaret,” Manville said in a statement posted on Twitter. “The baton is being passed on from two formidable actresses, and I really don’t want to let the side down. Furthermore to play siblings with my dear friend Imelda Staunton will be nothing short of a complete joy.”
Staunton—who was announced as the replacement for the current queen, Olivia Colman, earlier this year—and Manville have worked together numerous times in the past, including twice for Mike Leigh. (All told, Manville has made eight films with the legendary director.) The actresses also played pixies together in the Maleficient films.
Further casting for what will be the show’s concluding season has yet to be announced. Back in March, as the reality of the coronavirus pandemic closed in on film and television production, season four of The Crown was pushed to the finish line. Those new episodes, which Netflix will debut at a later date, will bring the royal family into the 1980s and feature Princess Diana as well as Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher.
Throughout The Crown, Princess Margaret has been a showcase role for the actors who play her. Kirby received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal and it is expected Carter will as well when the nods are revealed this month—a result that should make the spirit of Princess Margaret happy. Last year, while discussing her casting on the show, Carter said she had consulted a psychic to communicate with the late royal, who died in 2002.
“She said, apparently, she was glad it was me. My main thing when you play someone who is real, you kind of want their blessing because you have a responsibility,” Carter said during the Cheltenham Literature Festival, as reported by The Guardian. “So I asked her: ‘Are you okay with me playing you?’ and she said: ‘You’re better than the other actress’ … that they were thinking of. They will not admit who it was. It was me and somebody else. That made me think maybe she is here, because that is a classic Margaret thing to say. She was really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time.”
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— The 10 Best Movies of 2020 (So Far)
— Review: Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods Is Gold
— The Wild Life and Many Loves of Ava Gardner
— Inside Pete Davidson and John Mulaney’s “Make-A-Wish” Friendship
— Now Streaming: Over 100 Years of Black Defiance at the Movies
— Is TV Sabotaging Itself With Shrinking Shows?
— From the Archive: Exposing MGM’s Smear Campaign Against Rape Survivor Patricia Douglas
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.