Netflix and the creative team behind TheCrown haven’t said too much, but there are a few clues. For starters, the show’s official Twitter account announced that Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki is slated to portray Di for seasons 5 and 6—suggesting that Di’s death might occur more toward the series finale. Around the time Debicki’s casting was announced, CNN reported that The Crown would revisit the end of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ marriage in its final two seasons, as well as “her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.” Similarly, Deadline said that “Season 6 will take the story up to the early 2000s”—which could mean when Prince Charles married a second time, tying the knot with Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005. (Two other major moments that could come before the finale? The deaths of the Queen Mother and her other daughter, Princess Margaret, one month apart in 2002.) Another hint about how TheCrown could deal with Di’s death might be found in the 2006 feature film TheQueen, which focused on Queen Elizabeth’s handling of the tragedy—and just so happened to be written by The Crown creator Peter Morgan. In the movie, a brief series of quick shots show Diana’s car being tailed by paparazzi on motorbikes, right up until it enters the tunnel where the fatal accident occurred. In fact, not showing some of the most famous moments in Royal Family history is something The Crown almost wears as a badge of honor. (If you’ve already binged Season 4, then you know that—spoiler alert!—it skipped over a certain 1981 royal wedding.) “We never re-create things just for the sake of re-creating them,” Corrin explained to The Hollywood Reporter this month. “They don’t follow any plotlines that don’t directly link to The Crown [because] everything actually has to feed back to the queen. Even Diana’s plotline, it’s all about what she’s doing and the effect that that’s having on the queen. That’s why it’s called The Crown.” So, if we do see it, it might not be a moment-by-moment reenactment. But, given all this information, it seems likely we’d at least see the moment the Queen learns about Diana’s death, and how the palace handles the news. No matter what is or isn’t shown in future episodes, the fifth season isn’t even expected to begin filming until June 2021, according to Deadline, with a debut expected sometime in 2022. That means waiting to find out what Seasons 5 and 6 of TheCrown may hold will be a royal pain in the remote. Next, learn about Princess Diana’s sister, Sarah Spencer.
