Why Did ‘The Crown’ Recast Its Young Queen Elizabeth II Actress? And Who Is Viola Prettejohn?

**Spoilers for The Crown Season 6 Part 2, now streaming on Netflix**

The final episodes of The Crown premiered on Netflix this morning, featuring the return of past stars Claire Foy and Olivia Colman to shake some sense into Imelda Staunton‘s eldest version of Queen Elizabeth II. The two prior Elizabeths appear first in the finale to argue with their older self and then in the show’s final moments to bid Lilibet — and The Crown — a very solemn adieu. Also there to salute Staunton’s version of the character? A teenaged Elizabeth played by The Nevers star Viola Prettejohn.

Prettejohn first pops up as then Princess Elizabeth in The Crown Season 6 Episode 8 “Ritz.” The episode is bookended by flashbacks to the immediate aftermath of V-E Day, the moment World War II ended in Europe. We watch as Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret (Beau Gadsdon) sneak out of the palace for a night of partying in London. Margaret insists they go to the Ritz, where Elizabeth winds up dancing the jitterbug in the hotel basement with a handsome Black G.I. It’s a moment that Queen Elizabeth II would prefer stay secret, even though Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) does her darnedest to spill the beans that, once, her sister was cool.

What long-time Crown heads might notice, though, is that while the actress playing young Princess Margaret in The Crown Season 6 Episode 8 “Ritz” has been playing the youngest iteration of the royal since Season 1, Prettejohn is replacing Verity Russell, the original actress to play girl-aged Elizabeth. So…why the recast? Well, we have a theory. Here’s everything we know about The Crown‘s decision to replace Verity Russell with Viola Prettejohn in the show’s final season…

Who Is the New Actress Playing Young Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown Season 6 Part 2? Meet Viola Prettejohn…

Viola Prettejohn plays the teenaged Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown Season 6 Episode 8 “Ritz” and at the end of The Crown Season 6 Episode 10 “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep.” Prettejohn is best known for her work as the foreign language-speaking girl Myrtle in HBO’s The Nevers. She has also appeared in The Witcher as a “Fake Ciri” and played “Young Emily” in Counterpart. She’ll next be seen in Generation Z, Never Let Me Go, and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.

The Crown Season 6 Episode 8 “Ritz” opens with a flashback to 1945. Princess Margaret has convinced her sister to sneak out of the palace so they can join the victory celebrations in the city. Don’t worry. They have chaperones. Lilibet’s life-long bestie Porchey (Joe Edgar) and the handsome equerry Peter Townsend (Hamish Riddle). (You’ll remember that The Crown Season 3 opines that were she not Queen, Elizabeth probably would have married Porchey, and that Peter Townsend has long been depicted on the show as the great, tragic love of Princess Margaret’s life.)

The quartet goes to the Ritz, where Margaret and Peter dance with the tonny ballroom crowd. Elizabeth, however, gets drawn to the party downstairs. When Margaret sees her sister happily dancing, she realizes just how much Elizabeth has to give up to be Queen.

The larger focus of the episode is about Princess Margaret’s declining health, culminating in her eventual death. The larger theme, however, is that the true love story of The Crown is that of the sisters.

Beau Gadsdon returned to The Crown to play Princess Margaret, but Viola Prettejohn took over for original actress Verity Russell. So why the princess switch?

Why Did The Crown Replace Princess Elizabeth Actress Verity Russell with Viola Prettejohn?

Although we’ve yet to find an official reason for the Princess Elizabeth recast, we have a theory. Sure, it could be that Viola Prettejohn looks more like Claire Foy than Russell, but it also might simply be that Verity Russell isn’t acting any longer.

Russell was discovered at the age of nine by The Crown‘s casting directors, Kate Bone and Robert Sterne. According to her IMDB page, Russell has only ever acted in five episodes of The Crown over three seasons. There is not a single headshot on Russell’s page. If you google her, you’ll find various Verity Russells on social media, but none of them appear to be a match for the teenaged British actress. Between her scant CV and non-existent social media presence, I have to guess that Russell simply doesn’t want to act!

Of course, it could be that she attempted to return to The Crown, but the casting directors decided to go in a different direction. Prettejohn is a more seasoned performer than Russell and, as mentioned, looks closer to Claire Foy in appearance.

Either way, Prettejohn does a great job slipping into the role of Elizabeth, and joining the likes of Verity Russell, Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton as The Crown‘s Lilibets.