Four seasons in and the Netflix’s The Crown is firmly established as destination viewing for millions around the world. There’s a lot to bathe in with this show: the costumes; the ever-rotating but always immaculate casts; the palatial locations (and budgets); the in-fighting and drama; the occasional appearances by the corgis. Wherever you look there’s escapist eye candy to transport you and national disasters to bring you back to earth – a blend of real-life drama and posh fantasia that even Downton Abbey struggles to match.
What also keeps the show top of people’s must-watch lists, though, is its regularly thrilling depiction of a family in a state of almost permanent crisis. And there’s plenty more of that ahead as season 5 draws closer: Princess Diana’s rift with Prince Charles is about to go apocalyptic and the Queen is, once again, torn between family and duty. And there can only be one winner there.
When does The Crown season 5 come out?
No word on an exact launch date yet Netflix has the ten episodes of the series scheduled to land in November 2022.
Is there a trailer for The Crown season 5?
Not yet. The first trailer has traditionally dropped in late autumn, so expect something in September or October 2022.
Who will play the Queen in The Crown season 5?
Donning the ermine in place of Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth is Imelda Staunton, while Jonathan Pryce replaces Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip.
The Crown cast: who else is in The Crown season 5?
It’s all change again elsewhere in the cast as the series’ timeline skips forward into the 1990s. Tenet’s Elizabeth Debicki replaces Emma Corrin as Diana, while Dominic West will provide a burlier Prince Charles than Josh O’Connor’s version. And West’s 13-year-old son, Senan West, is keeping it in the family as a young Wills.
In place of Emerald Fennell, Olivia Williams will be the new Camilla Parker Bowles.
British acting royalty Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Another Year) will bring her usual A-game to struggling royal tearaway Princess Margaret, a role hitherto occupied by Helena Bonham Carter and Vanessa Kirby.
On the commoners front, Johnny Lee Miller comes aboard as John Major.
Diana’s relationship with Dodi Fayed comes into focus in the season and Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner) is playing him. His dad, Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, is played by Salim Daw.
Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed is playing Dr Hasnat Khan, Princess Diana’s other romantic interest.
Where was The Crown season 5 filmed?
A lot of the old favourites are back, with London’s Lancaster House standing in for the gilded corridors and chambers of Buckingham Palace and Suffolk’s Somerleyton Hall once again a surrogate for the Queen’s beloved East Anglia estate, Sandringham. Ardverikie Castle, previously best known as home to TV’s Monarch of the Glen, stands in for Balmoral.
The Windsor Castle scenes, including the 1992 fire, a certain dramatic high point of season 5, are filmed at Burghley House in Lincolnshire. Charles and Diana’s unravelling marriage will likely be recreated at Hertfordshire’s Brocket Hall, standing in for Kensington Palace, and Somerley House in Hampshire as Charles’s private residence Highgrove.
Expect some changes with the sun-soaked surrounds of San Telmo, Mallorca, where the Waleses spent time on holiday with William and Harry.
Which years will season 5 cover?
Season four ended with Margaret Thatcher’s removal from office in November 1990. Season five is rumoured to pick up in 1992 and run until the death of Diana in 1997, although that remains unconfirmed. The presence of Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair, who came to power that year, certainly suggests that it will – as do early on-set pics showing Debicki recreating one of Diana’s last public appearances at the English National Ballet in June 1997.
(Side note: this will be Carvel’s second appearance in the series. He also played broadcaster Robin Day in season 2.)
What happens in The Crown season 5?
“Power is nothing without authority.” That line from season 4 of The Crown, delivered by HRH to a politically wounded Margaret Thatcher, is basically a leitmotif for the whole show and is likely to continue to be a central concern in season 5. The royal family has constitutional power but it is locked in a constant battle for moral authority, every scandal and rift risking a seeping away of the esteem in which it’s held and that’s required for its continued existence.
In season 4, we saw Diana’s fraying relationship with Prince Charles, and her new-found desire for independence will give way to open war and seismic media appearances. Diana’s official trip to America in the final episode of season 4 feels like a tipping point.
In the political arena, Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) is gone, replaced by the milder, less stormy John Major as Prime Minister.
Will The Crown definitely get a season 6?
Yes, the creator’s Peter Morgan has confirmed that the initial plan to end with season 5 was jettisoned in favour of a final sixth run.
“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,” says Morgan. “To be clear, series 6 will not bring us any closer to the present day – it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”
Don’t expect Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to appear, though. The final season seems likely to end in the early noughties.
