--- title: The Crown's Matt Smith on Who Should Play Meghan Markle description: The actor was asked who he thinks would make a good Meghan Markle on future episodes of the TV series about the royal family. canonical: https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-08T19:07:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:11.321Z og:title: The Crown's Prince Philip Wants Selena Gomez to Play Meghan Markle og:description: It's a surprising choice og:url: https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6deb5eb6e5dfb90d/6988f46b4ee262bb513101a0/claire-foy-matt-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 92nd Street Y Presents A Screening And Conversation With The Cast Of "The Crown" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Crown's Prince Philip Wants Selena Gomez to Play Meghan Markle twitter:description: It's a surprising choice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6deb5eb6e5dfb90d/6988f46b4ee262bb513101a0/claire-foy-matt-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Crown_'s Prince Philip Wants Selena Gomez to Play Meghan Markle > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 8, 2017 7:07 PM UTC  Claire Foy and Matt Smith attend the screening of 'The Crown' at 92nd Street Y on December 4, 2017 in New York City. Claire Foy and Matt Smith attend the screening of 'The Crown' at 92nd Street Y on December 4, 2017 in New York City.Daniel Zuchnik—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 8, 2017 7:07 PM UTC Actor Matt Smith’s time on popular [Netflix series _The Crown_](http://time.com/5015435/the-crown-season-2-release-date/) is coming to a close. The next seasons will take on new actors who are closer in age to the British royals they’re portraying, as the series continues to track the nearly-century-long arc of the current monarchy. But just because Smith will be off set doesn’t mean he’s finished thinking about the future of the show. During a stop at Andy Cohen’s talk show this week, Smith and [star Claire Foy](http://time.com/5054229/the-crown-season-2-prince-philip/) were asked by a caller who they think should be cast as a future Meghan Markle, the American former _Suits_ actor [now engaged](http://time.com/5045105/meghan-markle-prince-harry-glove/) to Prince Harry. While Foy was pragmatic about the timeline — “It’s probably not gonna be for another five years, so it would have to be someone who’s about 11 or 12,” she mused — Smith had a quick suggestion. “Who’s that singer… who goes out [with Justin Bieber](http://time.com/5007723/justin-bieber-selena-bike-ride-pictures/)?” Smith asked, searching for the name. “Selena Gomez?” Cohen asked, surprised. “You love Selena Gomez,” Foy noted, a suggestion that Smith did not deny. But when he insisted that she would make a great Markle, Foy was having none of it. (Gomez is currently 25 years old. Assuming that Foy is correct and _The Crown_ films the current era five years from now, Gomez will be 30\. Markle, meanwhile, is actually 36 — so a mid-twenties actor choice is not too far off.) In any case, this is not the first time Smith and Foy have been questioned about Markle. Earlier this week, Smith even [gave her some advice](http://time.com/5052214/matt-smith-meghan-markle/), one (fictional) royal spouse to another. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/"},"headline":"The Crown's Prince Philip Wants Selena Gomez to Play Meghan Markle","datePublished":"2017-12-08T19:07:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:11.321Z","description":"\"Who's that singer... who goes out with Justin Bieber?\"","url":"https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","royals","meghan markle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6deb5eb6e5dfb90d/6988f46b4ee262bb513101a0/claire-foy-matt-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6deb5eb6e5dfb90d/6988f46b4ee262bb513101a0/claire-foy-matt-smith.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"92nd Street Y Presents A Screening And Conversation With The Cast Of \"The Crown\"","caption":"92nd Street Y Presents A Screening And Conversation With The Cast Of \"The Crown\"","creditText":"Daniel Zuchnik—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5056386/matt-smith-selena-gomez/","name":"The Crown's Prince Philip Wants Selena Gomez to Play Meghan Markle"}}]}] ```