After taking home multiple wins at the 2021 Emmys earlier this month, Netflix’s The Crown is almost ready to make yet another splash on the awards circuit with a new season. Nearly a year after Season 4 of the hit historical drama premiered, the new Queen Elizabeth, Imelda Staunton, took fans behind-the-scenes and onto the set of The Crown Season 5, which is set to premiere in November 2022, and teased the upcoming season during Netflix’s first-ever online global event, TUDUM, on Saturday. Staunton told fans that The Crown Season 5 is expected to premiere in November of 2022, and that it is filming now.
Prior to the Saturday event, Netflix had only given fans glimpses of the upcoming season by way of the release of select images showing the Season 5 cast in character. The first of those images came in July when the streamer released a photo of Staunton, dressed as the Queen, in the Palace. That image was followed by August-released images of Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West as Princess Diana and Prince Charles, with Debicki’s Diana photographed lounging on a sofa with a letter on her lap as West’s Charles was photographed in a suit outside on what appeared to be one of the royals’ country estates.
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Staunton, Debicki, and West are taking over their respective roles from Olivia Colman, Josh O’Connor, and Emma Corrin, who portrayed the characters in the third and fourth seasons. Since The Crown covers a decade of the Queen’s reign per season, the upcoming Season 5 marks the typical 2-season point in which the series recasts the characters, with Season 5 also set to star Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, and Dominic West as Prince Charles. Johnny Lee Miller, meanwhile, will portray John Major, who served as prime minister and leader of the UK’s Conservative party from 1990 to 1997.
Season 5 will follow the events of Season 4, which largely documented the strained relationship between Charles and Diana and the Queen’s reign amid Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The season will begin in 1991 and cover the expanse of the decade, which marked a tragic and tumultuous time for the British royal family. Although official details haven’t been divulged, the ’90s included everything from the Queen’s self-proclaimed “annus horribilis” in 1992, the year during which three of her four children separated from or divorced their partners, to the scandal that was Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, and tragically, the 1997 death of Diana, though it remains unclear how the series plans to approach that tragic event, which sent shockwaves across the globe.
Thankfully for fans, while Season 5 was initially announced to be The Crown‘s last, the decision was reversed and the series has already been renewed for a sixth and final season. As fans await the Season 5 premiere in November 2022, they can catch up on the first four seasons on Netflix. Stay tuned to PopCulture for the latest updates.
