The Crown Season 4 Trailer Unveils Gillian Anderson as Maggie Thatcher

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Gillian Anderson is a delight. 

The actress has played many beloved characters over the years, but the role of Maggie Thatcher is poised to be a big change for her. 

With a steely voice and a piercing stare, Thatcher takes center stage in the latest trailer for The Crown Season 4. 

The Crown Season 4 Poster

Thatcher and Olivia Colman's Queen Elizabeth II chat in the trailer, but it's clear things are not going well between them. 

But Queen Elizabeth does defend Margaret when Prince Philip balks at the idea of two women running the country. 

“Perhaps that’s precisely what this country needs.”

"It could be said that they are two very similar women, born only months apart," says writer and executive producer Peter Morgan. 

Gillian Anderson on The Crown

"They are very much defined by the Second World War, by a sense of a sense of frugality, hard work, commitment, Christianity and so much more. It was a commonly held piece of wisdom that the Queen and Thatcher didn’t get on."

"I think there was probably a lot of respect. But they also had many differences, it was really fun exploring their differences and their similarities."

"I also get a chance to explore them both as mothers. Writing Thatcher and the Queen as mothers was probably an angle that no one has explored before. It yielded one of my favourite episodes in the season.”

Season 4 picks up in the late 1970s. Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) and her family find themselves preoccupied with safeguarding the line of succession by securing an appropriate bride for Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor), who is still unmarried at 30.

Gillian Anderson Attends Comic-Con

As the nation begins to feel the impact of divisive policies introduced by Britain's first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), tensions arise between her and the Queen which only grow worse as Thatcher leads the country into the Falklands War, generating conflict within the Commonwealth.

While Charles’ romance with a young Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) provides a much-needed fairytale to unite the British people, behind closed doors, the Royal family is becoming increasingly divided.  

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies as The Duke of Edinburgh, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne, Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles, Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother, Georgie Glen as Lady Fermoy, Tom Byrne as Prince Andrew, Angue Imrie as Prince Edward, and Charles Dance as Lord Mountbatten.

Gillian Anderson Attends Premiere

Stephen Boxer also features as Denis Thatcher alongside Rebecca Humphries as Carol Thatcher and Freddie Fox as Mark Thatcher.

The Crown Season 4 premieres globally on Sunday, November 15.

Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.

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