So, you watched season 4 of The Crown and you're ready for more. Unfortunately, we already know that The Crown season 5, which will have an all new cast, will not premiere until 2022. (I know. Two whole years is rough.) But, if you're craving more royal drama right this second, the perfect companion piece to the series is streaming on Netflix. If you haven't already, it's time to you watched the 2006 film The Queen.
The Queen stars Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, and is focused on her reaction to the 1997 death of Princess Diana. Diana's death shocked people around the world and mourners turned up at Buckingham Palace with flowers and tributes. Still, the Queen took a long time to address the public in regards to the death, because she was caring for her grandchildren and following tradition. Yes, tradition! That old favorite theme of The Crown.
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Like the Netflix series, The Queen also features the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and her prime minister. This time it's Tony Blair, who is played by Michael Sheen. In the film, Blair repeatedly tries to convince the Queen to give the public a reaction to Diana's death and to allow a public funeral. The only way to find out what happens is to watch the movie. There is obviously no other way to get this information.
The strongest connection between the show and the movie is that The Queen is actually written by Peter Morgan, the creator and writer of The Crown. While The Crown seasons 5 and 6 will certainly look different than The Queen — there are many more characters to deal with, for one thing — the movie gives some insight into what you can expect with the aftermath of Diana's passing. You'll also be able to primed and ready to compare Morgan's first foray into this moment in history to his second, with The Crown seasons 5 and 6.
It's just unclear at this point when that will be. Diana's death will either be part of season 5 or 6, since we don't know yet how far into recent history Morgan will trek, other than the fact that we are unlikely to see Duchess Kate or Meghan Markle. But as Parade notes, when Elizabeth Debicki's casting as the next Princess Diana was announced, it was said she would be playing the role in season 5 and 6.
Earlier this year, Morgan announced that the series would go back to its original plan to be six seasons long instead of five. "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," Morgan said, according to Deadline. "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."
That doesn't clarify much when it comes to the timeline, but, for now, you have The Queen. It's written by The Crown's creator. It features a Crown actor (Alex Jennings, the Duke of Windsor in season 1 and 2, plays Prince Charles). It won Helen Mirren an Oscar. It spares you all the scenes about Prince Philip doing macho things to combat his sadness. And it features a Crown favorite: the deer metaphor. What more could you want?
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