‘The Crown’: Netflix Unveils First Look at Season 5 Royals (PHOTOS)
The Crown‘s fifth season is nearly here and in anticipation of the upcoming episodes, Netflix is offering fans a first look at new photos featuring the Royal Family.
Created and written by Peter Morgan, the critically acclaimed Emmy-winning series is based on historical events, dramatizing the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that ultimately shaped her reign. As the monarchy enters a new decade in the latest chapter, they’re presented with one of their biggest challenges to date, as they question their role in ’90s Britain.
Set to arrive Wednesday, November 9, The Crown‘s fifth season will include 10 all-new hour-long episodes executive produced by Morgan, Suzanne Mackie, Andy Harries, Stephen Daldry, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert Fox, and Jessica Hobbs. As fans of the Netflix hit have become accustomed to, Season 5 marks the shift from one set of stars to another as older actors replace the ensemble from Seasons 3 and 4.
Among Season 5’s pool of talent is Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles, Jonny Lee Miller as John Major, Salim Daw as Mohamed Al Fayed, and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed.
Below, scroll through for a first look at some of these stars in character, as well as remarks shared by the actors for Netflix. And mark your calendars for the return of The Crown later this fall on Netflix.
The Crown, Season 5 Premiere, Wednesday, November 6, Netflix
Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce take over as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, stepping in for previous stars Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies. “What has been nice, and I hope I don’t prove them wrong, is people saying, ‘I’m really looking forward to seeing her as the queen,’” Staunton shared in a statement. “So, let’s just hope that works out for them because I’ve done it. Nothing I can do about it now!”
Staunton’s costar was a little more curious about digging into his character’s past. “Doing this and looking into Philip’s background and finding out what made him the man he was, that was the interest to me,” Pryce revealed to Netflix’s TUDUM. “I’m more interested in their life, their emotional life, which is what The Crown explores.”
In this photo, West and Debicki embody their royal counterparts alongside the young actors playing Prince Harry and Prince William. “I think people understand, because the cast has changed every two seasons, that this is not an imitation,” West noted of the transformation of the former couple. “This is an evoking of a character. That’s really where the show lives: in the imagined conversations of their private life, which is something that no one knows. I think that’s what it gets a lot of criticism for. How can you know what they talk about in their private lives? The obvious answer is we don’t, but we have an incredible writer, a dramatist, who imagines based on exhaustive research, and that’s really part of the fascination of the show.”
Debicki’s portrayal comes after the showstopping performance from the show’s first Princess Diana, Emma Corrin. The new Diana seemed to tease more iconic moments from the princess in her remarks. “That’s the amazing thing about playing these people at this time, because in the journey of The Crown so far out of all the seasons, this is the most visual content we have of the Royal Family. In the ‘90s everything had started to be filmed and also it was the birth of the 24-hour news cycle so there’s just this incredible amount of content that we have access to. Diana was the most photographed person in the world at that time. As an actor you open the portal and this huge tsunami of information comes at you. I happily swam around in it.”
“One of the great things about The Crown is we get to see those sort of imagined intimate moments, which maybe give us a better perspective on someone that we’ve judged,” Olivia Willaims shared, hinting at the moments fans may expect from the prince and his future bride. “Charles and Camilla seem to have a very healthy sense of humor about what at times must be an unbearable predicament. And that is the thing that I most want to show.”
Lesley Manville steps in as the Queen’s sister, taking over for the most recent Princess Margaret, Helena Bonham Carter. “I had a lot of documentaries to watch, pictures, loads to read, but finally the scripts arrived, and that’s it,” Manville stated. “All the books I read have different people’s versions of events. So you’ve got to let it go in and just sink in, but then you almost forget about it because finally the scripts come and that’s what you work with.”
Claudia Harrison plays Princess Anne in the latest season. “Anne’s an extraordinary character. She’s not there to make people feel better about themselves, but she is superb at her job and is a proper feminist,” the actress shared. “She’s someone we can really look up to and I think she has no sense of entitlement.”
Following Gillian Anderson‘s turn as Margaret Thatcher, Season 5 makes way for a new Prime Minister, John Major. The role goes to Jonny Lee Miller, who Morgan commended in a statement shared by Netflix. “I think Jonny Lee Miller is an absolute triumph in the role and a real surprise.”
Don’t miss him and the rest of the ensemble when they take on the Royal Family in Season 5 of The Crown.
