We love The Crown, one of the best acted and most beautifully made dramas on Netflix. The show is now moving into production of its forth season, and in this article we round up everything we know (and the most plausible rumours) about the cast, the plot, the release date and more.
Fans of the series will be pleased to here that the creator of the show – Peter Morgan – has decided to end the show after six seasons as opposed to five to cover everything in greater detail.
When will Netflix air The Crown season 4?
The Crown season 4 will air on 15 November 2020. We assume all the episodes will drop at once – but we will update this article with confirmation once we know more.
The Crown is obviously one of the biggest series Netflix produces – and its most expensive – but check out our guide to all of the other upcoming Netflix series to find out what else is on the horizon.
How many episodes will there be?
Ten, almost certainly. The original plan was to film 60 episodes across six series, and there were ten in each of the first three series.
Has a trailer been released yet?
Yes! The full trailer was released on 29 October, giving us a look at Margaret Thatcher and the young Diana Spencer. You can watch it below:
The first teaser came out on 13 October, featuring a voiceover of the real Archbishop of Canterbury on Charles’s and Diana’s wedding day. Watch it below:
Cast news: who plays who in The Crown season 4?
The cast of season 4 will mostly carry over from season 3, with some new additions of course. Those returning include:
Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II
Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip
Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles
Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret
Marion Bailey as the Queen Mother
Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker-Bowles
There’s two major additions to the cast this season. All eyes are on Princess Diana, who will be played by Emma Corrin. This season will also chart Margaret Thatcher’s time in Number 10, with Gillian Anderson playing the role of the Iron Lady.
Which years will be covered by The Crown season 4?
The Crown season 3 finished around the year 1977. Therefore, season 4 will pick up here and take us all the way until 1990.
After that, we suspect that season 5 will cover the rest of the nineties, with the final season covering the early 2000s. As far as we know, the show isn’t meant to take us all the way to present day. If news on this changes, we’ll update this article.
What will happen in The Crown season 4?
The Crown is historical (albeit with more than a touch of artistic licence at times) so we should be able to predict roughly which events will be covered in the forth series.
Assuming that we’re looking at a period from 1977 to 1990, the following events could be covered:
Lord Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979
The marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981
The birth of Prince William in 1982 and Prince Harry in 1984
Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years in power, including her disagreements with the Queen over the miners strike, the 1982 Falklands War and sanctions on apartheid in South Africa
The 1981 Trooping of the Colour incident in which six shots were fired at the Queen
Charles and Diana’s tour of Australia in 1982
Michael Fagan – the man who broke into the Queen’s bedroom in a security lapse in 1982
Princess Margaret’s surgery in 1985
Prince Andrew marrying Sarah Ferguson (AKA ‘Fergie’) in 1986
Princess Diana’s flight on Concorde in 1989
Fans of the show will also be pleased to here that Claire Foy was spotted filming what appeared to be the Queen’s 21st birthday speech, according to The Independent. Therefore we’re likely to get a flashback scene at some point in season four.
The Crown season 5 cast
The next season of The Crown will see another cast switchover. Whilst not of the actors and actresses have been confirmed, some key casting announcements have been made:
Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II
Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip
Dominic West as Prince Charles
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
Whilst we don’t have confirmation on which time period this season shall cover, we’re assuming it will take us into the early 2000’s. Therefore, we’ll likely see the divorce between Prince Charles and Diana, the death of Diana and the death of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother. It’s going to be an exciting season, that’s for sure.
