The Crown spoilers follow.
It's official! By royal decree, Netflix has now confirmed that The Crown will indeed end with its sixth and final season. That was the original plan back when the show first began, but for a while there, things shifted so that The Crown was going to end with season five instead.
Thankfully, that's no longer the case since creator Peter Morgan changed his mind back in July 2020. Here's his official statement from Netflix, in case you're wondering why that might have happened:
"As we started to discuss the storylines for series five, 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."
Pour yourself a cuppa and join us at Digital Spy as we take a closer look at everything you need to know about The Crown season six — the final season, we might add — on Netflix.
The Crown season 6 potential release date: When will it air?
Netflix hasn't confirmed when The Crown season six will glide back into our lives just yet, but if we're going by previous releases, we expect that new episodes will arrive around November 2023.
However, things might be a bit different this time around given that filming for season season six was paused following the Queen's death.
Writer Peter Morgan explained this decision in more detail during a chat with Deadline where he said: "The Crown is a love letter to her and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. I expect we will stop filming out of respect too."
Back in 2016 when The Crown first started, director Stephen Daldry hinted that contingency plans were in place for the Queen's death even then (via Deadline): "None of us know when that time will come but it would be right and proper to show respect to the Queen. It would be a simple tribute and a mark of respect. She's a global figure and it's what we should do."
Bearing all that in mind, it's entirely possible that season six of The Crown could arrive in December 2023, or even early 2024 now instead.
The Crown season 6 cast: Who's in it?
As this is an even-numbered season of The Crown, there will be no major cast replacements in the main central roles. That means all of the following actors are expected to return for season six, including:
• Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II
• Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip
• Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
• Jonny Lee Miller as John Major
• Dominic West as Charles, Prince of Wales
• Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales
• Marcia Warren as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
• Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles
• Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne
• James Murray as Prince Andrew
• Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed
• Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair
• Timothy Dalton as Peter Townsend
Prince William has also been cast with two different actors playing him at different ages throughout The Crown's final run.
Teenager Rufus Kampa will play Prince William when he is aged 15 in the series, and then Ed McVey will replace him for William's late teens and early adult years. McVey will take on William during the start of his relationship with Kate, who will be played by Meg Bellamy throughout the series.
On November 28, 2022, a new set photo revealed our first look at Ed McVey in the role of Prince William ahead of season six.
As seen in the picture below (taken on-set in London), McVey is dressed in a shirt and tie with a black blazer. Already, the resemblance between McVey and a younger Prince William is uncanny, continuing in the tradition of excellent casting that this show manages to do so well.
An older version of Prince Harry will of course join William in the new season too, although no one has been officially cast in the role just yet. Rumours suggest production started casting for Harry in October 2022, so we should hopefully hear some news soon on that count.
Coronation Street's Tristan Gemmill is also going to be in season six after he left those cobbled streets three years ago in the tragic Christmas special. However, his character currently remains a mystery at the time of writing.
And most surprisingly of all, Loose Women's Kelly Brook has revealed that she'll also be making a surprise cameo in The Crown season six. Well, not in the flesh, so to speak.
A picture from Kelly's early modelling days back in the '90s will appear in the background at one point, so she had to give her approval for a picture clearance request.
"I got an email from my agent. She said: 'We have had a picture clearance request for one of your images to be used on The Crown season six. It would be printed as a poster and it would be put in one of the character's dressing rooms'," Brook said on Heart FM (via Daily Star).
"That's definitely got to be a teenage boy's bedroom. Could I be on the wall of Prince Harry or Prince William's bedroom at Buckingham Palace? Was I a pin-up for them back in the '90s? How old were they then? Well, this is incredible. Of course I have said yes."
The Crown season 6 plot: What will happen?
Following an early table read in August 2022, star Dominic West told Deadline that the final season "will be as tumultuous as it gets". And he's not wrong, because this will be the moment where The Crown finally depicts Princess Diana's tragic death on screen.
According to one of Deadline's sources, there was an atmosphere of "anxiety behind the scenes" ahead of filming that moment, even though Diana's actual demise won't be shown on screen.
"We've been dreading getting to this point," a source told Deadline. "The countdown is two weeks and while we're calmly carrying on, it's fair to acknowledge that there's a certain anxiety, a palpable sense of being slightly on the edge. I mean, there's bombshell sensitivity surrounding this one."
That's most likely why the writers have decided to focus instead on the build-up to Diana's death, followed immediately by the aftermath. Depicting the crash in full would be a step too far, for many.
Nothing else has been revealed yet plot-wise, but given the era this final season will cover, key events we expect to see include: Queen and Prince Philip's golden wedding anniversary (1997), the death of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret (2002), the Queen's Golden Jubilee (2002) and Prince Charles and Camilla's marriage (2005), plus more glimpses of Tony Blair's time in office (1997-2007).
Looking ahead even further, where will The Crown's final season end up? Will it ever reach events in the present day?
During a chat with Broadcast, producer Suzanne Mackie explained that showrunner Peter Morgan won't go beyond the early 2000s for the following reason: "Peter has said it very articulately, that he simply can't write something unless there has been time to gain a proper perspective. I think he's always felt 10 years is the minimum amount of time that he can see something in a historical context, to allow him to really understand it."
Morgan's been known to change his mind about the end before though, so will this plan end up coming to fruition?
"I don't think he'll deviate from that," Mackie added. "We all know these stories, but what Peter does so brilliantly is get underneath that and understand the landscape in a more nuanced, complex, surprising way."
The Crown season 6 trailer: When can I watch it?
Filming is well under way for The Crown season six, so we can expect to see more photos and clips from the final run very soon. In fact, plenty are already included in this article. But even so, keep this page bookmarked as more teasers and promos will pop up here periodically from now until season six's launch towards the end of 2023 (we suspect).
The Crown seasons 1-5 are now streaming on Netflix. Seasons 1-4 are also available on DVD and Blu-ray.
![The Crown - Season 1 & 2 [DVD] [2018]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1605277344-41cTH2ev65L.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=320%3A%2A "The Crown - Season 1 & 2 [DVD] [2018]")
![The Crown - Season 03 [DVD] [2020]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1605277496-41WxcDS9veL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=320%3A%2A "The Crown - Season 03 [DVD] [2020]")
![The Crown Season 4 [DVD]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1635170597-41sACUAfvpL._SL500_.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=320%3A%2A "The Crown Season 4 [DVD]")
