The Crown will now continue for a sixth season on Netflix, despite initial plans to wrap up the show after Season 5.
“As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons,” creator Peter Morgan said in a statement, per Deadline.
Despite the fact that Season 5 has only recently ended, Season 6 has already started in production, and there have been some updates on the impending storylines. Here is what we have discovered thus far.
The announcement of the Queen’s passing halted production.
On September 9, the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, declared that the series would suspend production out of respect for the Queen. Apparently, Netflix has long-term plans for the series in the event that the monarch dies.
“The Crown is a love letter to her and I’ve nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. I expect we will stop filming out of respect too,” said Morgan per Deadline.
Filming has resumed following Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
According to Entertainment Weekly, after a temporary pause in honor of the Queen, The Crown production has resumed. Elizabeth Debicki and Rufus Kampa, who was just cast as 15-year-old Prince William, may be seen filming a scene on a boat in Palma, Spain, in pictures taken on September 22. Another young actor was also present in the scene, and he was purportedly playing Prince Harry, but Netflix has not yet made Prince Harry’s casting official.
In the photos, Debicki appears to recreate another iconic Princess Diana look, as her red dress seems to be inspired by a look the late royal wore in July 1997 for one of her final official appearances, at Northwick Park & St. Mark’s Hospital in Harrow, Middlesex.
Debicki appears to be recreating another iconic Princess Diana look in the photos, as her red gown appears to be inspired by one of the late royal’s final official appearances, at Northwick Park & St. Mark’s Hospital in Harrow, Middlesex, in July 1997.
Debicki appears in the photographs wearing black-and-white striped trousers, a navy tank top, and white boat shoes while filming with the actors on a boat on a steep hill.
Princess Diana’s dying days will be covered in season 6.
The upcoming season will continue where Season 5 left off, focusing on the Princess of Wales’ final hours and minutes before passing away in a car accident that also claimed the lives of her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and the driver of the vehicle, Henri Paul. According to IndieWire, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed that the series would only depict the moments leading up to and following the fatal auto accident. The spokesperson added that “the exact moment of the crash impact will not be shown.”
Debicki and Dominic West maintained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that The Crown strives to depict the horrific incident and aftermath sensitively. According to the actress, “I’ll say that Peter and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors.”
No current-day royal moments will be featured in the sixth season.
Morgan clarified that the additional season would focus more on the intended plot rather than expand The Crown’s timeline. “To be clear”, he remarked, “Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day—it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.” So don’t anticipate stories about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, appearing on your television.
The final two seasons of The Crown will follow the royal family into the 2000s, but that doesn’t mean we’ll see the most recent royal weddings or royal births, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Queen will still be played by Imelda Staunton.
Season 5’s Queen Elizabeth II will be portrayed by Staunton. The former Harry Potter actress will continue Olivia Colman and Claire Foy’s tradition of playing the queen for two seasons each with the addition of her second confirmed season. Lesley Manville, who replaces Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret in Season 5, may be counted on to spend more time in the sixth and final season as the queen’s younger sister.
Prince Charles will still be played by Dominic West.
Variety stated in October 2020 that Dominic West from The Affair was “in late-stage negotiations for the role” of Prince Charles. In August 2021, Netflix made the announcement that actor Dominic West has been cast in Seasons 5 and 6, joining the cast opposite Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, who replaced Emma Corrin as Princess Diana.
Season 6 of the show will feature Prince William and Kate Middleton as adults.
For the sixth season of the program, according to Deadline, three actors have been chosen to represent the teenage and young adult versions of Prince William and Kate Middleton. One actress will play Princess Kate as a young adult, while two actors will represent William at various ages.
All three actors’ first television roles will be in The Crown. In episodes that portray the time after the terrible loss of his mother, Princess Diana, Rufus Kampa will portray William when he is 15 years old. In place of Meg Bellamy, Ed McVey will take on the role of the prince during his late adolescent and early adult years, as well as during his courting of Princess Kate.
The initial concept included Season 6.
Given that Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s head of content, predicted six seasons for The Crown in 2016, fans were counting on that number from the beginning. “The idea is to do this over six decades, in six seasons presumably, and make the whole show over eight to 10 years.” Things changed, though, when the streamer revealed in January that The Crown will end after five seasons instead. At the time, Morgan even remarked that it appeared to be “this is the perfect time and place to stop.” But six months later, they had returned to the original strategy.
Netflix probably won’t release the sixth season until 2023.
According to a recent Deadline article, Season 5 of The Crown won’t begin production until the summer of 2021, which means that those episodes won’t be available on Netflix until 2022. The sixth and final season will shoot in 2022, according to Deadline, after Season 5 wraps up in June 2021. Season 6 will most likely not debut until 2023 as a result. Just keep in mind that patience seems to be a virtue.
