Odds to Play Prince Charles in New Princess Diana Movie “Spencer” – Benedict Cumberbatch Favored
- Kristen Stewart has signed on to play the role of Princess Diana in new biopic Spencer
- The film is set to chronicle the early 1990’s weekend Diana decided she was done with Prince Charles
- Casting for the role of Prince Charles is still undecided. Benedict Cumberbatch is the odds-on favorite
As Hollywood resumes production while the world attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, new productions are being announced. Perhaps no new film announcement has garnered more attention than Spencer, the upcoming Princess Diana biopic.
The life of Princess Diana has been portrayed numerous times already, with stars like Naomi Watts in the film Diana and more recently by Emma Corrin in the upcoming season of Netflix’s The Crown. Yet Spencer still has folks talking.
Having Kristen Stewart cast in the title role of Diana Spencer has people talking. Certainly, the casting choice has been a decisive announcement, yet director Pablo Larraín is sticking to his guns on the decision.
While Spencer is set to focus mostly on an early-1990s weekend in which Princess Di decided to leave Prince Charles, now the attention is focused on who is set to play the role of the heir to Queen Elizabeth’s throne.
Odds for Being Cast as Prince Charles in Spencer
| Actor | Odds |
|---|---|
| Benedict Cumberbatch | -160 |
| Tom Hiddleston | +350 |
| Tom Holland | +700 |
| Tom Hardy | +1500 |
| Zac Efron | +2000 |
| Timothée Chalamet | +2200 |
| Robert Pattinson | +2500 |
Odds taken June 24
It’s still early days for Spencer. With production anticipated to start in early 2021, the film may not see a release until as early as 2022. There is still plenty of time for Larraín to pick his Prince Charles.
Judging by online rumors, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is well in the lead. While Cumberbatch’s physique most resembles that of a younger Prince Charles, he has something else going for him that set him apart from the pack: his age.
Prince Charles was roughly 14 years older than Princess Diana. Coincidentally, the age gap between that of Stewart and Cumberbatch is almost exactly the same. This lucky timeline helps Cumberbatch’s case tremendously.
Bridging the Gap
But, as we all know, in Hollywood not everything is about fitting the bill straight out of the gate. We’ve seen younger stars aged up and vice versa. So really, age is nothing but a number. It all comes down to having the essence of the character at your core.
Of course, being close to the age in mind doesn’t hurt either.
Kristen Stewart to play Princess Diana in new film https://t.co/ABx1quwfdM
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 18, 2020
While other stars such as Zac Efron or Timothée Chalamet would easily be able to play the role in terms of their skill sets and talent capabilities, they’re far too young for the role.
Online discussions have both these actors’ names swirling around the production but it just doesn’t make sense to have Diana visually looking older than Charles onscreen when the real life story was that of a younger wife grappling with her older husband’s complicated life.
Cumberbatch aside, Tom Hiddleston is close enough to Cumberbatch (and young Charles) in terms of physique. He’s four years younger than Cumberbatch but could easily be given a bit of makeup to be paired beautifully with Stewart’s Diana.
But even with Hiddleston as a consideration, when you visually pair Kristen Stewart and Benedict Cumberbatch, the match is uncannily familiar to ’90s-era Charles and Diana.
Looking back on photos of the younger Royal couple, the unlikely pair both had a certain uniqueness to their visual identity. This rare quality is mirrored in Stewart, which probably greatly contributed to why she was cast. Cumberbatch, while not textbook Hollywood handsome, has that certain swagger that would make him a fantastic choice for the role.
Pick: Benedict Cumberbatch (-160)
As an active entertainment aficionado, the former Editor-in-Chief for the Capilano Courier, JJ also co-founded Lords of Dogwood, a Vancouver-based entertainment site in 2013. His writing has been found in ION Magazine, the North Shore News, and The Strand.
