It's almost time to say goodbye to Netflix's epic, fictionalized biopic of the British Royal Family. The Crown, which was created by Peter Morgan and has been devoured by viewers since its 2016 series premiere, is set to end after its sixth season. The final season will cover another tumultuous period—following season 5's focus on Prince Charles and Princess Diana's divorce—beginning with the late princess's death in 1997 and continuing on into the 21st century. Here's everything we know about the final season so far.
Final Season
Netflix announced in July 2020 that The Crown will end after six seasons, though the length was briefly in question. Though Morgan initially pitched the series as six seasons long, the creator had decided to end the show after only five seasons earlier that year. He later reverted back to the original plan "in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story."
Release Date
Netflix has announced that the sixth and final season of The Crown will get a two-part release, with Part 1 arriving on November 16, 2023, followed by Part 2 on December 14, 2023. They dropped the news along with a date announcement trailer looking back over the entire decades-spanning series, showing Imelda Staunton‘s Queen Elizabeth II as she walks through the palace while wandering past images of Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, who are also featured in the narration.
"The crown is a symbol of permanence. It's something you are, not what you do. Some portion of our natural selves is always lost. We have all made sacrifices. It is not a choice. It is a duty," Foy and Colman say, before Staunton continues, "But what about the life I put aside? The woman I put aside?"
Part 1
Netflix followed up the date announcement with the first-look images for Part 1, complete with photos of young Prince William and Prince Harry.
The official Part 1 trailer is all about Diana (Elizabeth Debicki). It depicts the princess's struggle with the increasing paparazzi frenzy ahead of her ill-fated trip to Paris with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). It also shows glimpses of the beginning of her fatal car ride and its aftermath. "Don’t really understand how I ended up here," Diana says at the start of the clip via voiceover. "Dashing around …. and destroying myself in the process. I believe that’s been the story of my entire life."
Part 2
The first part of season 6 ends with a new teaser offering the first look at the award-winning series' final episodes. The timeline jumps forward to William arriving at college, with a group of adoring fans cheering for him and dubbing him the real-life Prince Charming. However, he feels pressured by all the fuss, as he points out via voiceover to the Queen, "Can't have fun when you've got photographers with you wherever you go."
Still, things seem to change when he meets a young Kate Middleton. The short clip only includes a glimpse of his future wife, as the pair lean in for a kiss at a party, before moving through what appear to be shots of Charles and Camilla's engagement and subsequent wedding. While we're still waiting on an official trailer, Netflix has dropped some first look photos ahead of Part 2's December 14 release.
The official Part 2 trailer switches focus to Queen Elizabeth, as she reflects on her reign and the life she put aside to become the Queen, all while dealing with the shift in public opinion to be against the monarchy. Meanwhile, Prince William steps into the spotlight while still grieving his mother's death and keeping his father, Prince Charles, at arm's length.
The official synopsis reads, "Still coming to terms with his mother’s death, Prince William heads back to Eton amidst an increase in attention from young female fans touched by his plight. The struggle to re-adjust leads to tensions with his family, as they try to support another young heir to find his way in the system and the world. Later, as Prince William takes up his place at St Andrew’s University, the omnipresent conflict of life as a public servant continues as he tries to balance the traditional undergraduate rites of passage with the constraints of his position and constant presence of personal protection officers. His perseverance is tested when he develops a crush on one of the most desired students on campus: a woman by the name of Kate Middleton."
Episode Length
Per Netflix's Tudum, Season 6 will consist of four episodes in Part 1 and six in Part 2. Part 1 will center Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), focusing on the events surrounding her tragic death in 1997. In the show's final release, we'll see Queen Elizabeth look ahead to a future where her successors are on the throne, as Prince William (Ed McVey) and Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) begin their university romance. Part 2 will also include the royal wedding of Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla (Olivia Williams).
Cast
The principal cast of Season 5 all returned for the final season, including Imelda Staunton (Queen Elizabeth), Jonathan Pryce (Prince Phillip), Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret), Dominic West (Prince Charles), and Olivia Williams (Camilla Parker Bowles). Elizabeth Debicki also appeared as Princess Diana for Part 1, in scenes depicting the final days of the late royal's life.
As for new additions to the cast, several new actors will portray Prince William, Princess Kate, and Prince as young people. Meg Bellamy will play Kate, while two actors will play each of the princes as they age—Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey for William, and Fflyn Edwards and Luther Ford for Harry. Netflix has released a few photos of William and Kate during their time at college:
Plot
The Crown season 6 began in the summer of 1997, picking up where season 5 left off right before Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed met for the first time. The rest of the season will follow the series' formula of depicting around a decade of the Royal Family's life, including the first meeting of William and Kate, as well as Tony Blair's (Bertie Carvel) tenure as Prime Minister. It's also likely that the show will touch on the 2002 deaths of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, which occurred within months of each other during the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee.
Behind-the-scenes filming shots have revealed that there will be at least one substantial flashback in the sixth season. Viola Prettejohn and Beau Gadsdon were seen filming a scene recreating Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret on V-E day, leaving Buckingham Palace arm-in-arm. It's possible the memory will be part of how the season covers the death of Princess Margaret.
Morgan has confirmed that the show will not continue into the present-day, and that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's relationship will not be covered. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the creator said that he employs a sort of 20-year rule, where he prefers for the events he covers to have occurred 20 years in the past.
"I just think you get so much more interesting [with time]. Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey, and I don’t know what their journey is or how it will end. One wishes some happiness, but I’m much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago," he told the outlet. "That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance."
Princess Diana's Death
While season 6 will include the weeks before Princess Diana's untimely death, as well as the emotional aftermath, Netflix has confirmed that the production is approaching her fatal car crash in a sensitive manner. A representative for the streamer confirmed to The Sun that, "The exact moment of the crash impact will not be shown."
When asked about the show's depiction in an Entertainment Weekly interview, Debicki said that Morgan is approaching the scenes thoughtfully.
"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," she said. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer's perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense. From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I'd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So that's my experience of the show."
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