In season 4 of The Crown, we saw the tumultuous marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana unfold and his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles continuing, and in the forthcoming 5th season, we can expect to go through the royal couple’s divorce and Lady Diana’s untimely and tragic death in 1997.
Each season the cast members change as the characters age, and playing Queen Elizabeth II this time will be Imelda Staunton, who is best known for playing Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series and will succeed Olivia Colman for season five. The announcement that Staunton would be playing the queen came when Netflix released an image of her in character with the caption “an early glimpse of our new Queen Elizabeth II, Imelda Staunton.”
Of course, we are even more excited about who will be playing the role of Princess Diana, and if you’ve been scrolling social media recently, you would have seen Elizabeth Debicki looking every bit the stylish royal as she imitated the moment she was seen in that little black off the shoulder “revenge dress,” complete with her multi-strand, and what looks like, sapphire centered, pearl choker. Debicki succeeds the role from Emma Corrin who played the princess in season 4, and bears a rather uncanny resemblance to the late princess.
Last season, Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret was nothing short of Oscar-worthy, and as Lesley Manville takes over the role from Bonham-Carter and prior to that, Vanessa Kirby, she feels like she has some big boots to fill as Manville said in a statement via Netflix, “I could not be happier to be playing Princess Margaret. The baton is being passed on from two formidable actresses and I really don’t want to let the side down. Furthermore to play siblings with my dear friend Imelda Staunton will be nothing short of a complete joy.”
Additionally, Prince Philip will be played by Games of Thrones’s High Sparrow Jonathan Pryce, Dominic West will play Prince Charles, Olivia Williams will take on the role of Camilla Parker Bowles, Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major, Khalid Abdalla as Diana’s boyfriend Dodi Fayed and Salim Daw as his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Season 5 will cover the time period from the early to mid 90’s and come to an end in the early 2000s. As The Crown shifts into the 21st century, history has it that it was one of the most difficult decades for Queen Elizabeth II, as three of her children’s marriages broke down in 1992 – the official separation of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in March, Princess Anne’s divorce finalized in April and Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s separation was announced in December that year. On her 40th anniversary on the throne, she made a speech describing the year as “annus horribilis,” as there was also a fire at Windsor Castle which meant she had to pay tax on her own income, and had to open Buckingham Palace to the public to help pay for refurbishing of the heritage site.
Last month it was reported that a huge focal factor for season 5 of The Crown could be Princess Diana’s infamous 1995 interview with Martin Bashir on the BBC in which she openly discussed details of her marriage to Charles, confirming his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Moreover, its likely that her divorce and fatal car crash in 1997 will feature in was initially reported to be the final season of the critically acclaimed Netflix show, but it has been confirmed that there will be a season 6 – which may be the final one?
