--- 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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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"}}]}] ```