While “The Crown” Season 5, which is set to debut on Netflix in November, was filmed long before Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September, the sixth and final season of the Emmy-winning show began production when the Queen had died. For the cast and especially the crew who have been with the series since its inception, it was an emotional time.
Imelda Staunton, who played Queen Elizabeth in Seasons 5 and 6, told TheWrap in a recent interview, “It was very sad, really, especially for the crew that had been doing it from day one.” “We started filming Season 6 on Wednesday, and the Queen died on Thursday, so we stopped filming for a while and started again. I resumed in person the day after the funeral So no doubt, it was a very sad and strange time for all of us knowing that we have to keep going. We couldn’t stop completely. So you have to regroup and move on , and so we did and we are, and it’s wonderful to do that.”
Stanton acknowledged the heightened sensitivity around the fifth season, noting that it began shortly after the Queen’s death, but noted that he had finished filming those episodes six months earlier. However, her co-star Jonathan Price, who plays Prince Philip in the final two seasons, thinks viewers can watch these past few seasons with renewed sympathy for the Queen.
“I think the biggest impact is [on] the audience. It will affect how they view Season 5 and how they view it, and I personally think there will be a lot more empathy and understanding about Queen, because people will want to see it,” he told TheWrap in the same . Interview. “I know the day after the Queen died, last season’s viewing figures went up by 150%. So it’s something that people want to see and it’s still the Queen they’d like to see, and I love the whole thing. Moves a lot.
The sense of added sensibility with Season 5 has had a tangible impact on the response to new episodes, even though they have yet to be released. Actress Judi Dench wrote an open letter on Netflix asking viewers to add a disclaimer to the show to let them know that it is a fictional drama series.
Maintaining in an open letter to Netflix last week that it is a “brilliant but fictionalized account of events,” the Oscar winner said she got wind of “injurious suggestions clearly implicit in the new series,” she believes. That requires a clear message to the audience that what they are seeing is more fiction than fact.
“I fear that a large number of viewers, especially overseas, may take his version of history to be completely true,” she wrote.
Netflix later added a disclaimer to the Season 5 trailer, but has yet to add one to the show.
“The Crown” Season 5 debuts on Netflix on November 9th.
