Are Prince William and Prince Harry in ‘The Crown’ Season 4?
The highly anticipated fourth season of Netflix’s The Crown finally hit the streaming service on Sunday, Nov. 15. While there are plenty of gripping scenes between Olivia Colman’s Queen Elizabeth II and Gillian Anderson’s Margaret Thatcher, the main draw of the season is the tumultuous marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Season 4 of The Crown ahead.]
Royal children don’t play a big role in ‘The Crown’
The season documents the majority of their relationship, from when Charles and Diana met when the late princess was 16, to the time leading up to their messy divorce in 1996. Of course, the Prince and Princess of Wales had Princes William and Harry during their 15-year marriage, making Season 4 the first opportunity for the two brothers to appear.
Here’s the thing about The Crown: while the show is all about the royal family, it largely focuses on the adults. Since Season 1, the young children of the royals haven’t played that big a role.
The young Charles and Princess Anne are featured in the first two seasons, and the birth of Prince Andrew and Prince Edward are also documented in Season 2. Princess Margaret’s children—Lady Sarah Chatto and David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon—are briefly eluded to during Vanessa Kirby’s stint as the late sister of the queen, but in Margaret’s later years (during which she’s played by Helena Bonham Carter), her children never appear.
Princess Anne’s children—Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips—are also not seen in Season 4 outside of a brief moment in the season finale, despite their being older than William and Harry.
Young Princes William and Harry are featured in ‘The Crown’ Season 4
Despite the absence of many of their family members, William and Harry are, indeed, in The Crown Season 4.
William makes his first appearance in Season 4 Episode 6, “Terra Nullius.” The episode documents Charles and Diana’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1983. William was born in 1982, and bringing a baby on the tour is a point of contention in the episode. Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, can’t understand why Diana is so hellbent on taking baby William on the trip, noting that they toured Australia and New Zealand themselves, leaving the young Charles and Anne behind for five months.
“And do you suppose that might have had consequences?” Margaret asks her sister in the episode, while Anne awkwardly awaits her mother’s reply.
“On what?” Elizabeth answers, completely missing the point. “The tour was a triumph.”
What episodes of ‘The Crown’ Season 4 show Prince William and Prince Harry?
The tour starts out rather difficult for Diana and Charles, as Diana is focused on the wellbeing of William and Charles would rather get on with their duties. He’s also preoccupied with Diana’s popularity, once she adjusts to all the publicity and begins to effortlessly charm millions. There’s a rather lovely scene in the episode where the couple finally admits their love for each other, and they spend the rest of the trip bonding as a family. It doesn’t last very long, however.
Prince Harry’s first appearance is in Season 4 Episode 9, “Avalanche.” His appearance takes place the night of Charles and Diana’s seventh wedding anniversary. Diana is seen driving to Highgrove, Charles’ beloved home, with her two sons in the backseat.
William is also seen again in Season 4 Episode 10, “War,” when his parents visit him at school. And the two brothers are seen again when the entire royal family gathers for Christmas at the end of the episode. If you’re hoping to hear the princes talk to their parents, however, don’t get your hopes up. William and Harry have close to zero lines.
There’s just one season of The Crown left. The show’s creator and showrunner, Peter Morgan, told The Hollywood Reporter that the show will only document things that happened to the royal family at least 20 years ago, so don’t get your hopes up about seeing adult William and Harry in the final season.
