With season five of The Crown described as ‘trolling on a Hollywood scale’ there has been an avalanche of backlash surrounding the Netflix show and the ‘insensitive’ portrayal of the Royal Family during the Nineties.
The Crown, created and written by Peter Morgan, has been a hit for Netflix since it was first released in 2016 with the main characters being regularly recast to follow the age of the royals in their respective timelines.
Fan appetite for the show has been stronger than ever, with viewers counting down the days for the series launch, even though it has been criticised for sensationalising events and including fictionalised scenes.
With the previous two seasons of The Crown covering the three decades before the Nineties the entire team has now been recast for this series’ 13-year time frame of 1990 to 2003.
Focusing heavily on the fallout between Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) as portrayed by Dominic West, the new series will showcase a number of low points for the royals.
Now as the controversial series releases its fifth season, MailOnline reveals everything you need to know.
Tension: With season five of The Crown described as ‘trolling on a Hollywood scale’ there has been an avalanche of backlash surrounding the Netflix show and th e ‘insensitive’ portrayal of the Royal Family during the Nineties
When is The Crown Season Five release date? And where can I watch it?
Season five of The Crown will be released on Netflix at 8am GMT on Wednesday November 9.
There will be 10 episodes in the season in keeping with the four previous seasons and that they will all be released at once on the streaming platform.
The season five episodes are entitled: Queen Victoria Syndrome, The System, Mou Mou, Annus Horribilis, The Way Ahead, Ipatiev House, No Woman’s Land, Gunpowder, COUPLE 31 and Decommissioned.
All previous episodes of The Crown are available to watch now if you want to refresh your memory ahead of the season five launch.
Who are the new cast? And who is the Queen?
With the previous two seasons of The Crown covering the three decades before the Nineties the entire team have been recast for this series’ 13-year time frame of 1990 to 2003
Queen Elizabeth II will now be played by Imelda Staunton, following on from Olivia Colman who took on the role for season three and four and Claire Foy who played the monarch in the first two seasons.
Other big names taking part in the new season are Dominic West, who is playing Prince Charles, and Lesley Manville, who is playing Princess Margaret.
New team: With the previous two seasons of The Crown covering the three decades before the Nineties the entire team have been recast for this series’ 13-year time frame of 1990 to 2003
Why did they change actors?
Every two seasons of The Crown sees the entire team recast as they move onto another time period in the Royal Family’s history.
Seasons one and two of The Crown covered the royals from 1947 – 1964 and saw Claire Foy and Matt Smith take up the main roles of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Seasons three and four looked at the time period of 1964-1977 and featured Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzes as the leading characters.
Season five will focus on the royals from the summer of 1991 – during the premiership of Prime Minister John Major – and will end in the spring of 1997.
How did season four end?
Season four of the Netflix hit saw the royals enter the turbulent period of the Eighties, which saw the country’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) as well as the arrival of Princess Diana (Emma Corrin).
In the finale, Thatcher’s time as PM had come to an end and the Iron Lady had one final meeting with The Queen in which she’s thanked for serving her country despite the frost anonymity shown between the ladies in episodes prior.
After the cracks in Diana and Charles’ (Josh O’Connor) marriage reached a point of seemingly no repair, Diana took a solo trip to New York City and visited children suffering with AIDS at a hospital in Harlem.
With the public’s affection for Diana at an all-time high Charles seeks solace from Camilla Parker Bowles (Emerald Fennell) who warns him: to be the protagonist of a fairy tale, you must first be wronged. A victim. Which, if we were to become public, we would make her.’
In the final scenes the royals gather for Christmas at Balmoral where Queen Elizabeth has ignored Diana’s pleas to discuss the collapse of her marriage to Charles.
As everyone gathers for the traditional family photograph the entire family is seen smiling with the exception of Diana, with the show ending by panning i non her stoic expression.
Racy: With season five looking at the royals during the Nineties, one of the biggest storylines will be the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage breakdown and the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call between the King and Queen Consort
What can we expect? Will The Crown show Princess Diana’s death?
With season five looking at the royals during the Nineties, one of the biggest storylines will be the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage breakdown and the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call between the King and Queen Consort.
It features graphic reconstructions of the most private of conversations in lascivious detail, imagined chats between Prince William and his late mother, and Diana’s infamous interview with Martin Bashir.
It will also feature the Queen making a speech on the 40th anniversary of her accession in 1992, in which she called the year an ‘annus horriblis’.
She was referring to the breakdown of three of her children’s marriages; Prince Andrew, Princess Anne’s and Prince Charles’ divorce from Princess Diana.
Other notable events during the time period included a fire at Windsor Castle and her golden wedding anniversary in 1997.
One of the most controversial aspects of the series is how it will tackle the death of Diana, with Netflix facing scrutiny over the decision to recreate the final days of Princess Diana, shooting some scenes in Paris, where she died.
Netflix have insisted that the ‘exact moment’ of the crash will not feature in the controversial drama.
Season five stops short of that moment. It ends with Diana, divorced from Charles, preparing for a Mediterranean holiday with her friend Dodi Fayed.
Oh dear: While the royals have yet to make any public statement regarding the series, there has long been rumours that they disapprove of the Netflix hit
How have the Royal Family reacted?
While the royals have yet to make any public statement regarding the series, there has long been rumours that they disapprove of the Netflix hit.
Last year the then Duke of Cambridge made a deeply emotional public statement asking that his mother’s interview with Bashir, which was obtained through deception, should never be seen in public again. Sources have since made clear that this applies to using it for dramatic purposes too.
This request has been ignored by Netflix, who features a recreation of the controversial moment.
After the release of season four, friends of Prince Charles launched a blistering attack on The Crown, accusing producers of the hit Netflix drama of ‘trolling on a Hollywood budget’.
Some of the Prince’s closest confidantes have accused the streaming giant of exploiting the Royal Family’s pain for financial gain and raged that ‘fiction is presented as fact’ in its twisted version of events.
Matt Smith, who portrayed Prince Phillip on the first two seasons of Netflix’s popular show, previously claimed that both the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Harry watched the hit series about the British monarchy.
‘I heard the Queen had watched it, she used to watch it on a projector on Sunday night apparently,’ He told the hosts of NBC’s Today show.
Tension: The final trailer for season five of Netflix’s The Crown was released earlier this month and showed the royal family in crisis during the new episodes
Is there a trailer for The Crown season five?
The final trailer for season five of Netflix’s The Crown was released earlier this month and showed the royal family in crisis during the new episodes, detailing the events leading up to Princess Diana’s 1997 death.
The sneak peek showed Elizabeth Debicki, who portrays the late Princess of Wales, whizzing away from paparazzi as she drives at full speed in a tense car chase scene.
Throughout the trailer, emphasis is placed on pressure the royal family faced during the 1990s as the marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana broke down – while also covering the late Monarch (Imelda Staunton) and her reaction to the Windsor Castle Fire of 1992.
Will there be a season six of The Crown?
Filming for the sixth and final season of The Crown is currently underway and there is currently no word on an expected release date.
However, the final series of The Crown will ‘end on a high for King Charles’ according to insiders.
Series six, which is set to stream next year, will close on the king’s 2005 wedding to the then Camilla Parker Bowles, saying it will leave viewers with a ‘positive’ image of the monarchy.
The Crown season five: From an Australian Princess Diana to a ‘frightened’ Queen Elizabeth and a VERY surprising John Major: MailOnline looks at the new cast members in Netflix’s most controversial series
Princess Diana – Elizabeth Debicki
(Previously played by Emma Corrin)
Princess Diana: Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki (left) had her big break in 2013’s The Great Gatsby and became a household name thanks to 2016 TV series The Night Manager (right: Princess Diana in 1994)
It was announced that Elizabeth, 32, had been cast to play Princess Diana for the next two seasons and fans of the Netflix show were delighted to hear that the Australian actress would be taking on the role – replacing Emma Corrin.
From her big break in 2013’s The Great Gatsby to becoming a household name thanks to 2016 TV series The Night Manager, the star steadily climbed up the ranks of showbusiness to secure the career-making role.
Past: Emma Corrin played the People’s Princess in the show’s fourth series
A former ballerina in training, Elizabeth switched to theatre during high school. She studied at University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts, where she was also awarded the Richard Pratt Bursary for outstanding acting students.
She shot to stardom after making her debut in The Great Gatsby in 2013, after impressing the film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, with her brief appearance in the 2011 Australian movie A Few Best Men.
Since then, she has appeared in several movies including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Tenet and The Cloverfield Paradox.
The actress said of her casting: ‘Princess Diana’s spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many. It is my privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one.’
Elizabeth also hit out at critics of the series, stating: ‘It was always very clear to me that one can never know what happens behind closed doors and that a writer is interpreting what may have happened.
‘Now the disclaimer is up there, we can maybe stop talking about it and move on. If that’s helpful for certain people, so be it, and now the conversation can be returned to the creative endeavour of what the show is.’
Prince Charles – Dominic West
Previously played by Josh O’Connor
Prince Charles: Photographs captured the amazing transformation of Dominic West (left) into The Prince Of Wales (pictured right in 1992) – with the actor mirroring the heir to the throne’s signature mannerisms.
Golden Globe nominee Dominic, 53, is set to play Prince Charles in the final two series of The Crown, taking over from Josh O’Connor who played the young prince in season three and four.
The Prince Of Wales was played in his teenage years by Julian…
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