Netflix recently released a first trailer for the second season of its series The Crown, Variety reports. The acclaimed period drama was considered one of the most impressive series of 2016, with Season 1 winning the Golden Globe award for Best Television Series (Drama). Claire Foy also went on to win Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series for her complex yet measured performance as Queen Elizabeth II.
While Season 1 focused primarily on the 1950’s and the first years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign after she takes over after her father’s early death, Season 2 will focus on the next decade: the revolutionary 1960s. This season will see the return of stars Claire Foy, Matt Smith (Prince Philip), Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret), and Victoria Hamilton (Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother).
Season 2 will also include newcomers Matthew Goode, who will play Antony Armstrong-Jones, a famous photographer who becomes involved with Princess Margaret, as well as Michael C. Hall as President John F. Kennedy), Jodi Balfour as the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and Anton Lesser as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
Season 1 found the Queen and her husband, Prince Phillip, struggling to find their footing as they attempted to juggle their marriage, raising their children, and being thrust into the public spotlight. Claire Foy and Matt Smith have said Season 2 delves further into these issues, and the trailer’s tense atmosphere certainly reflects this. It opens with Queen Elizabeth II lecturing her husband through clenched teeth: the rumors about his infidelity are flying, and she sourly expresses, “I have learned more about humiliation in the past few weeks than I hoped I would in a lifetime.”
The trailer shows the Queen feeling isolated after being pulled from all sides: politically, socially, and from within her family. Prime Ministers come and go, and the new footage reveals that she will have to find her way in political relations to the US as well, with the Queen hosting a state visit for John F. Kennedy and his wife come Season 2. The trailer indicates that the Netflix series will be maintain its impressive visual style and top-rate performances while continuing to push the dramatic boundaries of its story and characters.
Season 2 of The Crown will premiere December 8 on Netflix. All episodes of Season 1 are streaming online now.