Dropped on the streaming giant on November 9, 2022, the fifth season of Netflix’s epic fictionalized biopic, The Crown, had left everyone’s eyes on stalks with its riveting storytelling and the semblance of the characters’ features with the real-life royalty. Created by Peter Morgan, The Crown has garnered the reputation of being one of the most popular Originals offered by Netflix. Not only that, but it has also proven to be one of the most expensive shows ever made, with each season costing more than $100 million for production.
Originally, the show was only supposed to have five seasons but Morgan (thankfully) revisited his decision and the show was renewed for a sixth season. In fact, before the fifth season dropped on Netflix in November, the production for the sixth season had already begun.
The Crown has been nominated for a whopping 423 awards so far and has won 129 of them. The show also made history by winning all seven awards at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2021. It included Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Olivia Colman’s role as Queen Elizabeth II, and Claire Foy also received a Primetime Emmy for the same role.
With that said, here’s everything we know so far about The Crown season 6.
What to expect from The Crown Season 6?
Neither Netflix nor the creators of The Crown have announced anything specific about the plot of the final season as of yet. However, considering that the fifth season has been released on Netflix, we can make some educated presumptions regarding the plotline of the sixth season of The Crown. It was very surprising to note that the fifth season did not cover Princess Diana’s death. Based upon such nuances, What’s on Netflix predicts the following historical events following season 5:
- The death of Princes Diana, and Dodi Fayed
- The new Millenium
- 9/11
- Prince Harry’s one day of Rehab
- The death of Princess Margaret
- The death of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
- The Iraq War
Historically, the initial years of the 21st century were the hardest years of Queen Elizabeth II’s life, owing to the death of her sister, Princess Margaret, in February 2002 and the death of the Queen Mother only a month later. As per the behind-the-scenes filming shots revealed, we can ascertain that there will be at least one substantial flashback in the sixth season. Viola Prettejohn and Beau Gadson were reportedly filming a scene to recreate Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret on V-E Day when they were leaving Buckingham Palace arm-in-arm.
Meanwhile, she was also dealing with the fallout from Lady Diana’s demise and Prince Harry’s addiction tendencies that eventually led him to be admitted to Featherstone Lodge, a detox center in Peckham.
Although season 6 will begin weeks before Princess Diana’s unfortunate demise and the emotional aftermath, it won’t be featuring the car crash. A representative of the streaming giant, in conversation with The Sun, confirmed that “The exact moment of the crash impact will not be shown.”
Not only that but while speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Elizabeth Debicki, who is set to play Princess Diana, explained that Morgan has a very sensitive approach towards the scenes. She said, “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.
‘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.”
Additionally, we are also certain The Crown season 6 will begin in the summer of 1997 since the previous season concluded right before Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed met for the first time. The upcoming installment will underscore the first meeting of Prince William and Kate, including Tony Blair’s (Bertie Carvel) tenure as Prime Minister.
Morgan revealed that the show will not cover the events happening in the present-day royalty, hence alluding to the fact, that it will not cover Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan explained that the show is following a sort of 20-year rule, where he underscores those events which have occurred 20 years in the past.
He said, “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 for some happiness, but I’m much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago. That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance.”
What is the production status of The Crown season 6?
At the time of writing this article, the sixth season of The Crown is officially still in the filming stage. It reportedly began on September 1st, 2022. As per the sources, it will continue to last for some time, owing to the two brief pauses out of respect for the Queen’s death and the funeral.
On March 15th, filming was taking place in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, featuring actor Ed McVey who plays Prince William in the show. The creators are presumably covering Prince William’s time at St. Andrews University where he would meet his future wife, Kate Middleton. Not only that, but Netflix also released some behind-the-scenes footage of Rufus Kampa and Meg Bellamy outside the café where Prince William and Kate would normally meet for coffee when they were young.
On April 21st, ’23, finally was reportedly wrapped with the season currently in the post-production process. In regards to the Queen’s death during the production, Imeldon Staunton who plays the queen in the final season, had to say this:
“Well, to be honest, we started on the Wednesday, and the Queen died on Thursday, so it’s been colored, obviously, by those events. Nothing has changed within the series, and there’s no way I would tell you anything about it. I don’t care how many superheroes you got behind you, you’re not going to get past this.It did really affect us all. I think everyone was very saddened and thrown off course, and yet one knew one had to continue, which we are doing and have done. It is odd having to talk about something that you’re still doing because I’ve never done a series. Maybe for other people doing a long series, you do that all the time, but this is a first for me. I’ll be quite glad when this is on, and we can just go back to work.” (via Collider)
Who are the expected cast members of The Crown Season 6?
The principal cast of The Crown season 5 will reprise their respective roles for the final season as well, including:
- Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth
- Jonathan Pryce as Prince Phillip
- Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
- Dominic West as Prince Charles
- Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles
- Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
In addition to the above-mentioned cast members, new cast members will also be joining the team of the show, including:
- Meg Bellamy as Kate
- Rufus Kampa as young Prince William
- Ed McVey as older Prince William
Domini West, who played the role of Charles, the current monarch of England in season 5, unraveled that working on the season invites an “immense responsibility”, heightened especially in the wake of the Queen’s death. He said:
“Yeah, well it’s extraordinary because, of course, it comes at the time after the Queen’s death when I suppose The Crown has attracted more criticism than probably before. It’s also the most tumultuous season in many ways. It also covers the time that most people remember since the start of the show. So it’s a very exciting and daunting time to be doing this material because you’re aware of the responsibility. These are people are still alive and that’s an immense responsibility.”
When can we expect The Crown Season 6 to arrive on Netflix?
Netflix has not officially announced the release date for the sixth and final season of The Crown. Given that season 1 premiered on November 4, 2016, and season 5 is all set to premiere in November 2022, season 6 is expected to release sometime in November or December 2023 or early 2024.
As per Marie Claire, “The show has previously been filmed in two-season cycles, with each cast of royals filming their respective seasons back to back.”
Recently, Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria confirmed that the latest and final season of The Crown will arrive on Netflix in the Fall of 2023.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is The Crown Season 6 final?
By royal decree, The Crown season 6 will reportedly seal the fate of the show. Initially, the show was supposed to end with five seasons, but the showrunner, Peter Morgan revised his decision and renewed it for a sixth and final season.
2. How accurate is The Crown?
Although the show is inspired by the real-life events of Queen Elizabeth II, beginning from 1947 with her marriage to Prince Philip, it cannot be touted as historically accurate owing to the creative liberties taken for its historical storytelling, because of which, it has often found itself in the dumps of controversy.
3. What does the royal family feel towards The Crown?
Some members of the royal family, including Prince William and his late grandfather Prince Philip, have abstained from watching the fictionalized biopic, whereas others have openly confessed to watching this critically acclaimed series.