Fans of Netflix’s The Crown have a reason to celebrate this morning. After announcing that the show would end after season five, creator Peter Morgan has had a change of heart and has decided there is more story to explore. The Crown will indeed return for a sixth season.
Morgan had this to say about why he changed his mind on ending the show’s run:
“As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, 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. To be clear, Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day — it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”
Morgan’s change of heart comes six months after Netflix announced that season five of The Crown would be its last. Unlike Netflix’s latest trigger finger of canceling some of its popular series, this was not their decision and it all came down to Morgan believing that he could tell the story he wanted to tell across five seasons. This latest news means that the new Queen Elizabeth II, Imelda Staunton, will follow her predecessors in filming two series — as will Lesley Manville, who was last week confirmed as Princess Margaret.
Season 6 will take the story up to the early 2000s and it has been confirmed by Morgan and Netflix that this will be the final season. Cindy Holland, vice president of original content at Netflix had this to say about The Crown earning a sixth and final season:
“The Crown keeps raising the bar with each new season. We can’t wait for audiences to see the upcoming fourth season, and we’re proud to support Peter’s vision and the phenomenal cast and crew for a sixth and final season.”
The Crown’s fourth season, starring Olivia Colman, will premiere later this year after wrapping just before the coronavirus pandemic swept through British TV production. There are no set dates for the premiere of season five or six at this time.
