The first half of The Crown’s final series will be arriving on our screens within a matter of days, marking the royal Netflix drama’s penultimate outing.
After seven years, and three casts of actors taking on the monumental roles of Queen Elizabeth II and her family, season six of the Emmy-winning drama is set to include some of the most significant moments in royal history.
Most notably, it will cover the death of Princess Diana and its aftermath, before Kate Middleton will be introduced to the series for the first time as the show crosses into the 21st century.
Here’s everything we know about the final season of the award-winning show…
What is season six about?
Season six will pick back up with Diana and Prince Charles, after they’ve spent their first summer apart as a divorced couple, showing both parties on their respective holidays with sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
“I don’t really understand how I ended up here. Dashing around, and losing sight of myself in the process,” Diana says in the trailer’s voiceover. “You know I think that’s been the story of my whole life.”
“We’re very much in the beginning of the Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed story,” said executive producer Suzanne Mackie.
“From the second she steps onto that boat and [you begin to see] some of those iconic images of her on the yacht, it does take you immediately to the whirlwind that was the press speculation around that romance.”
Season six will cover the period leading up to Diana’s death along with the aftermath and long-term impact of her passing.
The trailer includes a clip of the so-called “people’s princess” reassuring her young sons that she is doing well, before receiving an invitation to Paris, the city where she tragically died in a car accident in 1997 after being chased by paparazzi.
Season six will later go on to explore the early years of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s romance – played by newcomers Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy, respectively – after they meet at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Netflix has previously revealed that the 2005 wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles will also be covered in season six. It will not, however, go as far as depicting the weddings of either Prince William and Kate Middleton or Prince Harry and Megan Markle.
How does The Crown plan to handle Princess Diana’s death?
There was understandably a lot of press speculation about how exactly Princess Diana’s tragic death would be approached.
The main thing to note is that the car crash that killed Diana alongside her then-boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed and their driver Henri Paul, will not be portrayed on screen.
A source previously told Deadline: “It’s the run-up: the car leaving The Ritz after midnight with paparazzi in pursuit and then the aftermath with the British Ambassador to France swinging into action with the Foreign Office and then the subsequent constitutional aftermath.”
The Crown creator Peter Morgan insisted that they would “never” show the crash itself, and recently addressed rumours of Princess Diana appearing as a ghost in the upcoming season. The Daily Mail revealed that a ghost would emerge before a grieving Prince Charles as well as Queen Elizabeth, but Peter has since said that Diana deserved “special treatment” in her depiction. “I never imagined it as Diana’s ‘ghost’ in the traditional sense,” he told Variety .
“It was her continuing to live vividly in the minds of those she has left behind. Diana was unique, and I suppose that’s what inspired me to find a unique way of representing her. She deserved special treatment narratively,” he added.
Producer Suzanne has also previously assured concerned viewers that the handling of Diana’s death will be “sensitive” and “thoughtful”. Elizabeth Debicki, who took over the role of Diana for season five, opened up herself about this aspect of the series, sharing: “For me, one of the things that felt so important – because we know where the story is going – is to make sure that there was real joy and happiness and lightness and genuine fun on the screen.
“That was really the piece I felt that I could control in a way, and that became a real focus.”
Who stars in it?
Imelda Staunton is returning as Queen Elizabeth alongside Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip. Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West will also be reprising their roles as the now divorced as Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Bertie Carvel will also be back as Prime Minister Tony Blair.
New cast members include Rufus Kampa playing Prince William in his early teen years and Fflyn Edwards as a young Prince Harry.
Other returning cast members include Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles, Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed and Salim Daw as Mohamed al-Fayed.
How many episodes are there?
There are two parts to season six of The Crown, which consists of 10 episodes total.
Part one is made up of the first four episodes, while the remaining six are included in Part Two. The titles of the first four episodes have already been revealed: Persona Non Grata, Two Photographs, Dis-Moi Oui and Aftermath.
When is it out?
All four episodes in Part One come out Thursday 16 November, before the remaining Part Two episodes drop just shy of a month later, on Thursday 14 December.
Is there a trailer?
Yes, you can watch the trailer for part one below. A selection of first-look pictures have also been released.
Seasons one to five of The Crown are streaming on Netflix now.