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.
Season 6 may be years away since Season 4 just debuted, but this is what we know thus far.
As a result of the Queen’s passing, production has been halted.
Peter Morgan, the show’s creator, confirmed that the series will pause production out of respect for the Queen. Apparently, Netflix has long-term preparations for the series in the event that the queen 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,” according to Deadline, Morgan.
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 timeframe. The last 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 marriages or royal births, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“To be clear, Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day—it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail,” he said. So don’t anticipate seeing Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,-related topics on your TV.
The queen will continue to be 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 may be portrayed by Dominic West.
The Affair’s Dominic West was reportedly “in late-stage negotiations for the part” of Prince Charles in October 2020, according to Variety, although the casting has not yet been made official. To be honest, though, we can’t think of anybody finer to play the famous part in Seasons 5 and 6.
If West is successful in landing the part, he will be paired with Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, who will replace Emma Corrin as Princess Diana.
The original schedule included Season 6.
Given what Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief of content, said in 2016, “The idea is to do this over six decades, in six seasons presumably, and make the whole show over eight to 10 years” fans of The Crown were counting for six seasons from the beginning.
Things changed, though, when the streamer revealed in January that The Crown will end after five seasons instead. Six months later, though, they’re back to the original plan; in fact, Morgan even said at the time that it seemed like “now is the right moment and place to stop.”
The sixth season probably won’t hit Netflix until 2023.
According to a recent Deadline report, The Crown’s fifth season won’t begin production until the summer of 2021, therefore we’ll have to wait until 2022 to watch those episodes on Netflix.
 Per Deadline, “With Season 5 filming in June 2021, the sixth and final season will shoot in 2022.” Season 6 will therefore most likely not debut until 2023. Simply keep in mind that patience is a virtue.
