‘The Crown’: First Look at Kate Middleton and Prince William Actors Together

The Crown Season 6 will cover Kate Middleton and Prince William’s love story, based on photos from filming at the University of St. Andrews that surfaced over the weekend. The Prince and Princess of Wales met and fell in love at the university in Scotland before marrying in 2011. Ed McVey will play college-age William, while Meg Bellamy will play Kate.

McVey and Bellamy were cast in the key roles last fall. McVey is a graduate of Drama Centre London and understudied in the Old Vic’s production of Camp Siegfried, reports Deadline. Rufus Kampa will play Prince William at 15. The Crown marks the professional debuts for all three actors. Kampa and Bellamy were cast after submitting self-taped videos in response to a social media casting call. Will Powell and Luther Ford will play William’s younger brother Prince Harry.

William studied at St. Andrews from 2001 to 2005. He met Kate at the university and their relationship reportedly turned romantic in 2002. They took their relationship public in 2004, but split in April 2007, PEOPLE reported at the time. However, they reunited months later and William proposed in 2010. They got married in April 2011. They have three children, Prince William, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4. William is next in the line of succession to the British throne, after his father, King Charles III.

Season 6 will cover Princess Diana’s death and lead into the early years of the 21st Century. Imelda Staunton is returning as Queen Elizabeth II, while Jonathan Pryce is back as Prince Philip. Dominic West plays Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki plays Princess Diana. Olivia Williams is returning as Camilla Parker Bowles. Lesley Manville plays Princess Margaret again. Margaret’s death may also be involved, as she passed away in February 2002 at 71.

The Crown is likely to end before creator Peter Morgan gets to the current drama between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and the rest of the royal family. After Netflix agreed to give Morgan a sixth season, he said back in 2020 that he does not plan to bring the show up to the present day. Instead, Season 6 will guarantee he and his team do a more in-depth exploration of the second half of the 1990s. “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,” Morgan said in 2020. Netflix has not set a premiere date for The Crown Season 6.