Matt Smith may be joining Star Wars.
BBC
Matt Smith, who’s just off a two-season stint playing Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip on Netflix series The Crown, may be joining Star Wars: Episode IX in a “key role,” Variety reported Tuesday.
Details were sparse, and Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the final movie in the nine-film Star Wars saga is currently filming in the UK. (It’s still untitled, but here’s a recent popular rumor.)
On The Crown, Smith, 35, played Philip from his wedding to then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947 to the birth of their fourth child, Prince Edward, in 1964. He’s been nominated for an outstanding supporting actor Emmy Award and will find out Sept. 17 if he wins. Tobias Menzies was just announced as Smith’s replacement, playing Philip as he ages into the 1980s and the Princess Diana era.
Before his work on The Crown, Smith was the youngest actor ever to play The Doctor on the long-running BBC series Doctor Who.
It’s unknown who Smith might play in the Star Wars universe, and whether he’d be on the side of the rebels or the Empire. Star Wars: Episode IX is set to open worldwide on Dec. 20, 2019.
