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Things are a bit rocky for the British royal family at the moment. We can’t imagine that our collective obsession with Netflix’s The Crown is helping the situation. The acclaimed series follows Queen Elizabeth’s reign from 1952 into the present day. Since the royals aren’t exactly scandal-free, the series has artfully unpacked several scandals thus far including Princess Margaret’s infamous affair with one of her father’s employees — Prince Philip’s possible infidelity, and the demise of Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla Parker Bowles’ initial romance.

Still, things have been fairly tame thus far. However, when Season 4 of The Crown debuts later this year, all bets are off. After all, we will be moving into the era of the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ marriage — and we all know how that turned out.

Despite the fact that the show airs out all of the royal family’s dirty laundry, Queen Elizabeth gave the show a subtle shoutout during her recent Christmas speech.

This is what we know about Season 4 of ‘The Crown’

Though Netflix has not yet taken pity on us and given us a release date for Season 4 of The Crown, based on past seasons we can assume the new seasons will debut during or around the holiday season 2020. Season 4 will begin in the 1970s and move into the 1980s after Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding and through Prince William and Prince Harry’s births.

Olivia Coleman who stars as Queen Elizabeth in Seasons 3 and 4 warned fans that Season 4 will be less historical. “It feels quite different,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “We had our read-through and to hear the voices of Margaret Thatcher and all of that, it’s quite fun.”

Queen Elizabeth enjoys ‘The Crown’

Though Prince Philip adamantly refuses to watch The Crown — Queen Elizabeth II adores the show. Apparently, her youngest son, Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex, convinced her to give the series a chance. The queen gave the series her blessing after watching the first season.

According to The Daily Express, “She really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized.” Still, to have the queen give a nod to a series that is based on her life must have been a major win for series creator Peter Morgan and Netflix.

Queen Elizabeth gave ‘The Crown’ a subtle shoutout

During her annual Christmas Day speech in December 2019 — the queen had several photos on display. One of them showed her shaking hands with the Apollo 11 crew. The importance of the 1969 moon landing was depicted in Season 3 of the show. The episode followed Prince Philip’s obsession with the moon landing and the astronauts’ visit to Buckingham Palace.

It looks like the queen wanted The Crown to know she’s been paying attention while marking the 50th anniversary of the event. In addition to the photo, Queen Elizabeth also ackowleged the royal family’s tumultous year. “Small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome long-held differences and deep-seated divisions to bring harmony and understanding,” she said. “The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference.”

Hopefully, this year will be a bit better.

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