The Crown season 5: Everything we know from cast to release date

Viewers will be waiting a while for the next season of Netflix’s royal drama to arrive

If The Crown’s fourth season is anything to go by, we’re all still gaga for dramatised royal intrigue. Assisted by the arrival of Gillian Anderson’s Margaret Thatcher and Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana, The Crown hasn’t been quite as anticipated since its early years.

So much, that is, that excitement is already building for the rest of the series, which will continue to dive into the salacious and tragic dramas of the Royal Family as they head into the 1990s.

Following on from the success of season four, which has been praised by The Independent for its “dazzling performances” and “thoughtful drama”, here’s everything you need to know about The Crown’s fifth season – including who is in the cast and when it will be released.

Will there be a fifth season?

Yes! While The Crown’s fourth season is streaming on Netflix now, the fifth season will most probably arrive in 2022. This will mean there will be no new episodes in 2021, which echoes the similarly Crown-less 2018.

Who is starring in The Crown season five?

In keeping with the show replacing its main cast with older actors every two seasons, to mark leaps forward in time, season five will feature an entirely new cast of players. Oscar nominees Imelda Staunton and Lesley Manville will portray Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, respectively, while Jonathan Pryce will portray Prince Philip.

Tenet star Elizabeth Debicki will assume the role of Princess Diana, and while it has yet to be confirmed by Netflix, Dominic West is heavily rumoured to portray Prince Charles. The ambiguity surrounding West’s casting mirrors that of Gillian Anderson, who was rumoured to be playing Margaret Thatcher nine months before it was officially confirmed.

Have they started filming and when will it be released?

Not yet. Production on season five is due to begin in June 2021, which marks more than a year since filming concluded on season four. Unexpectedly, The Crown was always intended to pick up filming next summer, despite speculation that the Covid-19 pandemic had delayed production. This means that viewers will likely have to wait until 2022 for the next series.

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, though she won’t be around for season five and beyond (Des Willie/Netflix)

When will season five take place?

Season four wraps up in Christmas 1989, meaning season five will jump forward in time to the 1990s. It will presumably make the season one of the show’s most dramatic, with Charles and Diana divorcing amid stories of their respective infidelities, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson embroiled in scandals, and Diana killed in a car crash. The tragedy led to international mourning, and forever changed the Royal Family.

Will there be a season six?

There has been a few turnarounds this year in terms of season six. Up until January, The Crown was always spoken of as a show that would run for six seasons. But that shifted at the start of 2020 when Netflix announced that, in a last-minute change of plans, season five would instead be the show’s last.

Then that changed a few months later, with series creator Peter Morgan confirming in July that a sixth season would in fact go ahead after all. Perhaps Morgan realised the dramatic potential of the family’s experiences in the 1990s, and that squeezing it all into one season was unrealistic.

“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,” Morgan said in a statement.

Season six is scheduled to begin filming in 2022.

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana; Elizabeth Debicki will assume the role in seasons five and six (Des Willie/Netflix)

What time period will The Crown end in?

It has yet to be confirmed where in the Royal timeline The Crown will come to a close, despite rumours that it will climax in the early 2000’s. It may, however, end earlier, with Morgan having already explored the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in his 2006 film The Queen, which won Helen Mirren an Oscar.

The Crown season four is streaming on Netflix now.