All interviews quoted in this article were conducted in April 2023.
The Crown has returned for its sixth and final season with Part 1 (four episodes) debuting on Nov. 16. Part 2, comprised of six episodes, will follow on Dec. 14. This chapter closes a groundbreaking movement in television.
Season 5 of the series ended on what Elizabeth Debicki described as “a hopeful beat” for her character, Diana, but the royals’ relevancy was left hanging in the balance. Season 6 picks up with Diana and Prince Charles (Dominic West) spending their first summer apart as a divorced couple, each enjoying very different holidays with their sons Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Prince Harry (Fflyn Edwards).
“We’re very much in the beginning of the Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed story,” said executive producer Suzanne Mackie. “From the second she steps onto that boat and [you begin to see] some of those iconic images of her on the yacht, it does take you immediately to the whirlwind that was the press speculation around that romance.
Yes! Below, get your first look at Diana, Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), Charles, and Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) in these photos from The Crown Season 6, Part 1.
Filming Season 6 felt like “coming home” for Debicki. Although there were four months between the filming of Seasons 5 and 6, she was always thinking about what was coming next. “I was really looking forward to Season 6, because there was a chunk of the story where I was not going to be as alone,” she said. “For me, in terms of an overarching journey, one of the things that felt so important –– because we know where the story is going –– is to make sure that there was real joy and happiness and lightness and genuine fun on the screen.”
Much of the setup for Dodi’s character in Season 6 took place during the last season for Abdalla, as viewers mainly got to see him with his father. Now, we’ll get to witness his friendship and romance with Diana. “In some ways, Season 5 was the introduction of my character, waiting for what’s to happen in Season 6,” he said. “As I returned, I had huge nerves, apart from anything else. We’re actually finally going to do this…”
In preparation for the new season, Abdalla and the research team gathered as many photos as possible to chart Diana and Dodi’s romance, and to explore the tension between the paparazzi hounding them and their nascent love affair. “Their relationship, from beginning to end, was six weeks,” says Abdalla. “That’s one of the things that very often shocks people.”
Mohamed’s relationship with his son becomes even more tense in Season 6. “Momo al-Fayed had his point of view, and he wants his son to be exactly as he wants him to be,” said Daw. “And in Dodi’s head, he has another opinion and another point of view.”
West believes Prince Charles has a “real sadness” but also a “real compassion” to him.
“What’s great about The Crown is that you see these public figures in private,” he says. “I suspect in private he’s quite emotional, well that’s the way I played him anyway… I think, hopefully, what comes out is compassionate but relatively well balanced.”
In preparation for the role, the actor talked to a lot of people who have interacted with the future-king, since Charles has “met probably more [people] than anyone except the queen and Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce),” says West. “Almost everyone has extremely warm, kind things to say about him.”
The Crown is the first extended series Staunton has ever done. Considering it was the final season, she knew Season 6 “did carry a lot of weight,” she said. “There’s more dynamics going on, probably, between the queen and Charles [in Season 6], but the importance of [Prince] Philip in her life is undeniable.”
Prior to The Crown, Staunton knew Pryce, who plays her on-screen husband, and also Lesley Manville, who plays her on-screen sister Princess Margaret, so there was an ease and comfort going into the final season. “All of us, the family as it were, we all wished we’d had more scenes together as the family, because they’re all extraordinary characters and we all absolutely got on,” she said.
You can watch the trailer below.
Stream Season 6, Part 1 of The Crown now. Part 2 premieres on Dec. 14. Only on Netflix.
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