It feels like an age since we left the royals at the end of the 1980s in the season finale of The Crown’s most recent outing.
However, as the first photographs emerge from the set of the hit series’ fifth season, its long-awaited return finally feels that little bit closer.
The fifth season of The Crown started filming in July after months of speculation regarding just about everything from the cast to the storylines to the date that we’d finally see the Netflix series back on our screens. So, what do we know so far?
The Cast
By now, we’re used to seeing The Crown’s cast change every couple of seasons as we follow the British royals through the years.
By the time the fourth season arrived, we knew we’d be saying ‘Adieu’ to Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth), Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret), Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher) and Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) among others, but we were yet to hear who would fill their shoes for the fifth and penultimate series of the controversial and semi-fictitious look into the life of the royal family.
Rumours have circulated ever since, so fans of the series will be unsurprisingly pleased to get their first look at the new cast in character.
Perhaps the two most highly-anticipated cast announcements were the names of the actresses who would be taking on the roles of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana, with Harry Potter’s Imelda Staunton and The Great Gatsby’s Elizabeth Debicki eventually confirmed to have signed on to play the two iconic women respectively.
They’ll be joined by The Wire’s Dominic West, who is set to take over from Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles, and Game Of Thrones’ Jonathan Pryce, who will take the reins from Tobias Menzes to play the late Prince Philip.
Further confirmed castings include Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret and Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker-Bowles.
With Netflix having announced that The Crown will come to an end following its sixth season, this is the drama’s final line-up. We certainly can’t wait to see them in action.
The Storylines
We’ve been told previously that the final season of The Crown will follow the royal family into the mid-2000s.
Given that season one took place between 1947 and 1955, season two between 1956 and 1964, season three between 1964 and 1977 and, most recently, season four between 1979 and 1990, it looks as though season five will depict the dramatic events that occurred within the house of Windsor in the lead-up to the millennium.
Such events will likely include the fire that part-destroyed Windsor Castle in 1992, the announcement of the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana the same year, Diana’s tell-all interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 and, perhaps the most infamous event to occur amongst the family in the 1990s, Princess Diana’s untimely death in 1997.
Given the controversy surrounding the way that the series depicted the tumultuous relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana during season 4, it’s unsurprising that many viewers are intrigued to see how writer Peter Morgan will handle their 1996 divorce and the tragic accident that killed Diana one year later.
When Does Season 5 Of The Crown Start?
Given the fact that the series has only just started filming, we’ll likely have to wait a little while later to get an official trailer or release date for its penultimate outing.
We do, however, know that the series will return to Netflix in 2022, giving viewers plenty of time to go back over its previous seasons beforehand.
We don’t know about you, but we’re already counting down – and hoping that Peter Morgan might consider rebooting the series in the future to cover the royal events that have taken place since 2010…
READ MORE: Emma Corrin: ‘The Label ‘Icon’ Ignores So Much Of Who Diana Was’