This Sunday, The Crown season 4 arrived on Netflix. The new run of the hit royal drama has earned just as much critical acclaim as the past three seasons and fans have been spending the last day of the weekend lapping up the 10 episodes. You might want to savor them, though, as season 5 won’t be here until 2022. Nonetheless, we still know a fair amount about what we can expect from it when it eventually hits the streaming service.
The reason for the delay is due to the major cast switchover that’s taking place. Just as the show took a year off following Claire Foy’s two-season tenure as Queen Elizabeth II, it’s now doing the same given that Olivia Colman has donned the Crown Jewels for the final time. In season 5, Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter, Downton Abbey) will take over the role of Her Maj. Like Foy and Colman before her, she’ll play the part for two years, carrying on into season 6, which is the show’s final outing.
Staunton will be joined by Jonathan Pryce as her on-screen husband Prince Phillip and Leslie Manville as Princess Margaret. Dominic West, meanwhile, will play Prince Charles, while Elizabeth Debicki portrays Princess Diana. The rest of the cast has yet to be revealed, and we still need to know who’s going to fill the roles of Princess Anne and young princes William and Harry.
By nature of it being based on historical events, we can also deduce what the plot will cover. Season 5 will tackle the 1990s, which was a tumultuous decade for the Windsor family. Famously, the Queen labelled 1992 as her “annus horribilis” (horrible year) due to the dearth of royal scandals and political upheaval she had to contend with. Three out of her four children also divorced that decade. And in 1997, Diana tragically died in a car crash. Politically, John Major and Tony Blair served as Prime Ministers.
Production on The Crown season 5 is due to begin in June 2021. Season 6 will then go before cameras sometime afterwards and air in 2023.