Long live The Crown! Netflix and Peter Morgan previously took fans of The Crown by surprise when it announced that the royal drama would be ending with Season 5, going against the original plans for the cast-swapping drama to run for six seasons. Well, it looks like the streaming chronicle of Britain’s royal family will now be going back to Morgan's initial plans.
That's right, The Crown will now be one season longer than we expected. Check out Netflix's announcement on social media:
In a surprise announcement, Netflix has revealed that The Crown will not be concluding with Season 5 after all. The royal drama will continue for one more batch of hoity-toity episodes, as was the original plan when the series started.
To explain why the expensive series made the major turnaround, The Crown’s creator Peter Morgan released the following statement via a follow-up tweet on Netflix’s UK & Ireland account. Morgan’s statement reads:
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.
And just like that, The Crown has three more seasons left instead of two. Fans are currently awaiting the fourth season, which will see Olivia Colman continue in the role of Queen Elizabeth II. She took over the part in Season 3 from the initial actress, Claire Foy. However, The Crown’s upcoming fourth season will be Colman’s last one playing the Queen.
The Harry Potter franchise’s Imelda Staunton will take over as Queen Elizabeth II in Season 5. After confirming that casting news at the end of January, The Crown also confirmed that Staunton’s stint would last a single season. That is obviously not the case anymore, so the Season 6 reversal is obviously awesome news for Staunton to hear in the same way it was for fans.
The Crown recently announced that it had found the actress to recast Helena Bonham-Carter in the role of Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister, Princess Margaret. Bonham-Carter, like Olivia Colman, played her royal part in Season 3 and the forthcoming Season 4. Not too long before announcing that The Crown would live on for another season, another piece to the puzzle had gotten added.
Another actress will be playing a different incarnation of Princess Margaret, with Oscar nominee Lesley Manville getting cast to replace Helena Bonham-Carter in the role of Margaret. Now that the series will be going on for another season, Manville could continue the part until then.
I said “could” because Princess Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71. Depending on when Season 6’s story starts, she may not actually be involved. As for Season 6, fans still have two more seasons to enjoy before getting there, so that is pretty marvelous. According to Olivia Colman, viewers have a lot to look forward to with Gillian Anderson joining the cast in Season 4 as Margaret Thatcher.
I have to say that I am pretty happy about this news. Cutting The Crown back a season never made much sense to me. The previous cast members all got two seasons under their belt before saying goodbye, so it's good news for Season 5’s ensemble that they will get to play their roles for more than a single season.
Now, farewell is even further away. You can currently stream Season 1-3 of The Crown on Netflix. The series’ fourth season is expected to be among the streamer’s 2020 premieres. While you wait for more royal drama, check out this summer’s schedules to stay entertained.
