It was announced in October that Olivia Colman would be stepping into Claire Foy’s blue sash and diamond tiara for the third series of The Crown. Five months later, the identity of the actor who will take on the role of a middle-aged Prince Philip has finally been confirmed.

English actor Tobias Menzies, best known for appearing as Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones and in the dual roles of Frank/Black Jack Randall in Outlander, will play the sulky prince in the next series of Netflix’s hit royal drama. Deadline reports that Menzies has signed a deal to appear in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, and will begin filming in the UK this summer.

This won’t be the first regal role Menzies has played. As well as his parts in GOT and Outlander, he also starred as Brutus in HBO’s Rome and recently finished shooting King Lear, a dual production between BBC Films and Amazon Studios, in which he plays the Duke of Cornwall.

According to The Telegraph, Paul Bettany (Iron Man, A Knight’s Tale, The Young Victoria, The Avengers) was also in talks to play Prince Philip. However, he pulled out earlier this year after being unable to commit to eight months of filming.

The news of Menzies’ casting follows a controversy over the revelation that Foy was paid less than Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip, in the first series of The Crown. Since then, Foy has discussed her feelings about the show’s gender pay gap, and the producers have promised: “Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.”

In February, Colman said that Foy had set a very high standard when it came to playing the Queen. “She’s f***ing amazing and it’s a very hard act to follow,” she told Radio Times.

Colman added that she and her husband had been blown away by Foy’s acting. “We are completely obsessed with The Crown anyway but whenever Claire Foy comes on he goes, ‘Oh, she’s amazing,’” she said. “Watching the first series was blissful because I had no idea. With the second series I now know I’ve got to follow in her footsteps.”

Series two of The Crown concluded in 1964, after the birth of the Queen’s fourth and final child Prince Edward. The third series will pick up in the Seventies, and is expected to continue exploring the relationship between the Queen and Prince Philip, as well as giving her children more prominent roles.

Speaking to Vanity Fair earlier this year, the show’s casting director Nina Gold said that she saw the same qualities in Colman that she saw in Foy: the ability to be stoic and emotionally transparent at the same time.

“They each have such easy access to their humanity,” Gold said. “They allow you to somehow see into them without really doing anything.”

Gold also confirmed that a young Camilla Parker Bowles will make an appearance in series three – but we won’t meet Diana Spencer, the future Princess Diana, until a later season.

“Diana’s not in this season,” she said. “[But] when we do get to her, that is going to be pretty interesting.”

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