Gillian Anderson cries foul on rumors she was a prickly presence on ‘The Crown’

Gillian Anderson blew us all away with her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Crown‘s fourth season. She neatly captured Thatcher’s egotism and single-minded megalomania, and went on to pick up an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild award, and a Critics’ Choice Television Award.

However, a report in the British newspaper The Metro has alleged the actress is causing trouble for the upcoming sixth season, which is currently shooting across the UK. They say The Crown has been “forced to rewrite their scripts” after Anderson refused to return as Thatcher for a (presumably) brief appearance in the final season, with her response to this succinct and to the point:

Well, that squashes that bit of gossip then.

The sixth season is expected to begin in the late 1990s and end in the 2000s, so it seems unlikely Anderson’s Thatcher would have played much of a role anyway, as by this point we were deep into Tony Blair’s New Labour. As this is the final season, The Crown may wrap things up with a montage or flashback covering the many historical and political figures we’ve encountered over the course of the show, though it seems like they could simply use existing footage for Anderson’s Thatcher.

The sixth and final season is expected to land on Netflix in late 2023, and will be the first season produced after the death of its subject, Queen Elizabeth II. Here’s hoping for a trailer soon, and confirmation of exactly when this excellent show will wrap up.