‘The Crown’ Season 5 ‘Darker,’ ‘More Critical’ of Royal Family, Says EP
The Crown Season 5 is getting closer to the present day, but it’s still set 30 years ago. The new season begins in 1991 with a new cast. Imelda Staunton plays Queen Elizabeth at 60 with Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana. The show’s producers promise a “darker, perhaps slightly more critical” take on the royal family this season.
Executive producer Jessica Hobbs spoke with Netflix’s Tudum in an article published on Oct. 31 to preview The Crown Season 5. If you remember the ‘90s royal scandals, you can probably imagine what makes the season darker. Hobbs explained how the new season explores new themes in the royal family.
‘The Crown’ Season 5 has a new perspective on Queen Elizabeth
The Crown Season 5 introduces Staunton as Queen Elizabeth getting her 60th birthday physical. Staunton is the third actor to portray Queen Elizabeth at a different stage in her life, after Claire Foy and Olivia Colman. Hobbs said the queen in her 60s opened up new themes for the show.
“When you’re coming into your 60s, you’re questioning perhaps your own relevancy, even though [the queen] has a duty going forward,” Hobbs told Netflix, “From the beginning [of the season], we start with the concept of relevancy, specifically through the relevancy of the queen. By the end of the season, we are questioning the relevancy of the institution itself. That is really the arc.”
Relevancy is ‘a darker, perhaps slightly more critical’ take
Hobbs pointed to that analysis of the relevancy of the royal family as the darker theme of The Crown Season 5. So it’s not just the Charles and Diana scandals that make it darker. The whole monarchy was going through a crisis, and The Crown creator Peter Morgan explores that.
“[The Crown creators] take a slightly darker, perhaps slightly more critical look at the institution and the monarch herself,” Hobbs said. “Peter has done that really beautifully through the character, questioning her role and what it contributes and what it does.”
The ‘90s were a dark time for the royal family
In the ‘90s, Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced amid his adultery. Diana died in 1997 as a result of a paparazzi chase. There are more scandalous subplots for Prince Philip too. But Hobbs said there was a more general feeling toward the royal family that The Crown Season 5 explores.
“The real rub within Britain about status and whether the royal family deserved to be there anymore was quite a shift from the previous two seasons,” Hobbs said. “The public started to really question [them], and it was quite a publicly anti-monarchy time.”
Morgan himself confirmed The Crown Season 5 tackles, by nature, a turbulent time for the royal family.
“It’s hard to remember a period as turbulent as the early ’90s,” he said.
