Gillian Anderson to play Margaret Thatcher in Netflix's The Crown
Gillian Anderson has been cast as Margaret Thatcher in an upcoming season of Netflix's royal drama The Crown.
The X-Files star will play the former British prime minister in the show's fourth season as it enters the '70s and '80s, with the period set to introduce both Thatcher and Princess Diana, the UK's Sunday Times reported.
But viewers likely won't see Anderson in the role for about two years, Deadline notes, as the third season of the hit drama has yet to air.
Season three sees Olivia Colman, currently winning awards as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos' period-comedy The Favourite, taking over from Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, and Tobias Menzies taking over from Matt Smith as Prince Phillip. Helena Bonham Carter will play Princess Margaret.
Netflix has revealed it is filming both its third and fourth series back-to-back, with the latter season set to notably touch on the Queen's frosty relationship with "Iron Lady" Thatcher.
Peter Morgan, the series' creator and writer, previously speculated on the weekly meetings between the two in his 2013 London play The Audience, treating their relationship as largely adversarial.
In a 2013 article on the historical veracity of the play, the UK's Telegraph quoted Thatcher's memoirs in order to shine light on their private relationship: "Anyone who imagines that they [the audiences] are a mere formality or are confined to social niceties is quite wrong; they are quietly businesslike and Her Majesty brings to bear a formidable grasp of current issues and breadth of experience," Thatcher wrote.
Declassified files released in 2017 also suggested that in 1987 the Queen furiously "considered scrapping" her weekly audience with Thatcher over the then PM's refusal to back hardline sanctions against South Africa's racist apartheid regime.
The Crown's third season will premiere on Netflix later this year.