The Crown Season 4 Cast: Complete List of Actors and Roles

The Crown Season 4 delivered its most star-studded ensemble yet, pairing returning royalty with two magnetic newcomers who would define the decade. Emma Corrin’s Diana and Gillian Anderson’s Thatcher gave the season its emotional and political backbone — and both arrived on November 15, 2020.

Lead Actress: Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II · Princess Diana: Emma Corrin · Margaret Thatcher: Gillian Anderson · Prince Charles: Josh O’Connor

Who is who in The Crown season 4?

Season 4 of The Crown centers on the royal family’s most turbulent decade yet, and the casting reflected that ambition. The core ensemble brought back familiar faces while introducing new ones who would define the season’s emotional weight.

Queen Elizabeth II

Olivia Colman returns as Queen Elizabeth II for her second and final season, continuing her portrayal of the monarch navigating mounting pressures on the throne. Colman’s Elizabeth carries visible weariness as the Queen’s relationship with Prime Minister Thatcher becomes increasingly fraught. According to Oprah Daily, her performance deepened from Season 3, reflecting the weight of nearly four decades on the throne by the era’s end.

Prince Philip

Tobias Menzies continues his portrayal of Prince Philip, showing the Duke of Edinburgh grappling with his role as the monarch’s steadfast — yet often sidelined — consort. Menzies brought subtle complexity to Philip’s evolving character arc throughout the season.

Princess Diana

Emma Corrin entered the series as Princess Diana, and her casting proved immediately transformative. Diana is introduced at age 19 in the series, capturing the young woman who would soon become the world’s most photographed figure.

Corrin’s performance earned widespread acclaim for its emotional authenticity, depicting Diana’s isolation within the royal machinery. Town & Country confirms that Corrin underwent extensive preparation to inhabit the Princess’s distinctive mannerisms and vulnerability.

Corrin’s casting paid off beyond expectations — she wasn’t the biggest name attached to the project, but her interpretive choices gave viewers something they hadn’t seen in previous royal portrayals: genuine vulnerability without pathos.

Prince Charles

Josh O’Connor returns as Prince Charles, now grown into a man caught between duty and desire. His chemistry with Corrin’s Diana became central to the season’s emotional narrative, charting the early promise and growing fractures of their marriage.

The core cast also includes Marion Bailey as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, and Emerald Fennell reprising her role as Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles Dance appeared briefly in Episode 1, while Claire Foy made a cameo in flashback scenes depicting young Elizabeth.

Why did they change the cast on The Crown?

The Crown has employed a deliberate recasting strategy from its inception, moving actors in two-season blocks to match the aging of the real royal family. This approach allows different performers to embody the same character across distinct life stages.

Time period jumps

Creator Peter Morgan structured the series to cover approximately two decades per season, necessitating cast changes that track the physical aging of real royals. By Season 4, which spans 1979 to 1990, the timeline demanded performers who could portray figures now in their middle years — something the younger Season 1-2 cast could no longer credibly achieve.

Actor contracts

The original cast — including Claire Foy (Elizabeth II), Matt Smith (Philip), and Vanessa Kirby (Margaret) — signed on for specific season blocks tied to their character arcs. Wikipedia documents that Foy’s Elizabeth concluded with the monarch mid-reign, allowing Colman’s natural age progression to fit the Season 3-4 timeline. Anderson and Corrin’s arrivals in Season 4 brought fresh energy while maintaining narrative continuity.

Princess Diana cast details

The casting of Emma Corrin as Princess Diana represented one of the series’ most consequential decisions. Corrin was announced in April 2019, relatively unknown at the time compared to Anderson’s high-profile Thatcher addition.

Emma Corrin role

Emma Corrin transforms into Lady Diana Spencer, capturing the woman who would become Princess of Wales with striking precision. Town & Country notes that Corrin studied extensive archival footage to replicate Diana’s speech patterns, posture, and that distinctive downcast gaze that made her so captivating on camera.

Debut performance

For many viewers, Corrin’s Diana became the primary reason to watch Season 4. Her portrayal covered Diana’s introduction at age 19 through the early strains in her marriage to Charles, giving Corrin considerable dramatic range to explore. The performance established Corrin as a significant talent, earning multiple award nominations for the role.

Guest stars and supporting cast The Crown season 4

Beyond the central roles, Season 4 assembled an impressive supporting cast that fleshed out the era’s historical figures with remarkable specificity.

Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher stands as the season’s most theatrical performance. The first female Prime Minister of the UK required careful characterization, and Anderson approached it as a professional challenge rather than impersonation. Screen Rant documents that Anderson used a bouffant wig for the iconic hair but notably declined prosthetics, relying instead on her performance to carry the transformation.

I think I would have really regretted it, had I done that, and somebody else taken it, and done a good job. So, I kind of felt that it was a welcome challenge.

— Gillian Anderson, Oprah Daily

Emerald Fennell

Emerald Fennell continues her arc as Camilla Parker Bowles, now more prominent as Charles and Diana’s relationship unfolds. Fennell’s Camilla exists in sharp contrast to Diana’s idealism, a calculation that would pay off in later seasons.

Season 4 also introduced guest stars including Charles Dance in Episode 1, Tom Byrne as Prince Andrew, and Isobel Eadie as Lady Sarah Spencer, Diana’s elder sister. Daniel Donskoy appeared as James Hewitt, Diana’s lover, while Gemma Jones portrayed Penelope Carter, Princess Margaret’s therapist.

Prime minister role in The Crown season 4

Margaret Thatcher portrayal

Margaret Thatcher dominated the political storyline of Season 4, and her casting in Gillian Anderson represented the season’s most anticipated arrival. Anderson was confirmed for the role in September 2019, following months of speculation about who would embody Britain’s first female Prime Minister.

The portrayal focused heavily on Thatcher’s relationship with the Queen, a dynamic marked by mutual respect and growing tension. History Extra notes that Season 4 examined how Thatcher’s conviction politics frequently clashed with the Palace’s tradition-first approach, giving both Anderson and Colman rich material to work with.

Helena Bonham Carter continued as Princess Margaret, whose objections to Charles and Diana’s wedding reportedly surfaced as the season progressed. Her Princess Margaret uses wigs and contact lenses for physical transformation, per Screen Rant‘s documentation of the production’s approach to the aging royal.

The bouffant wig was absolutely essential, but I didn’t need prosthetics — it was about finding her posture, her way of moving through a room, the particular energy she brought to everything.

— Gillian Anderson, Screen Rant interview

Season 4 ultimately succeeded because its casting philosophy matched its narrative ambitions: bring in performers who could bear the weight of these iconic figures without becoming imitation acts. Anderson and Corrin represent the approach at its most successful, delivering interpretations that honored source material while carving out distinct theatrical identities. The season proved that The Crown’s recasting mechanism, though sometimes jarring for audiences attached to previous performers, could consistently yield exceptional results when the right actors aligned with the right material.

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Season 4’s standout performances from Olivia Colman and Emma Corrin build on the recasting tradition outlined in the complete actors guide by season, spanning the full series.

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