Above: (L to R) Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in The Crown, image credit: courtesy of Netflix; Princess Diana, image credit: Getty Images; Olivia Colman as The Queen in The Crown, image credit: courtesy of Netflix; Queen Elizabeth II, image credit: Getty Images
The long reign of British monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, continues both to dominate the real world and also the entertainment landscape with season four of must-watch historical royal drama, The Crown, streaming on Netflix in Australia from November 15, 2020.
The Golden Globe-winning series, which charts the reign of The Queen, key real-life royal events and all the surrounding fascinating royal intrigue, has become a pop culture phenomenon and has viewers eagerly tuning in each season for a variety of reasons. One of the main drawcards, aside from stepping into the rich and colourful royal history vaults, is the cast.
Each season of the series spans a number of decades, but instead of using make-up and CGI to age the original cast, the roles are recast every couple of seasons and there are brand new faces when a season arrives at a point in history when there are new additions to the royal ranks, such as in the case of Princess Diana. This recasting process not only keeps a fresh perspective, it also provides additional anticipation for each forthcoming season to see how the “new” Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Princess Anne or any of the other key royal characters will be portrayed by the newly-anointed actor.
With season five of Netflix’s The Crown imminent, now’s the perfect time to take a virtual stroll through the cast list over the past and future seasons (The Crown will reportedly finish with season six) alongside their real-life royal equivalents.
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Image credits: Netfilx/Getty Images
Princess Diana
Actor: Elizabeth Debicki, seasons five and six
Casting the net outside of the UK to our local shores, Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki has been tapped to play The People’s Princess in seasons five and six of the royal series. Now, the streaming platform has released our first look at the new royal, the season itself, slated to cover the Queen’s so-called “annus horribilis” in 1992, when three of her four children separated from their partners—including Prince Charles and Diana.
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Image credits: Getty Images
Prince Charles
Actor: Dominic West, season 5
After months of rumour around who would take up the mantle of Prince Charles after Josh O’ Connor, Netflix officially confirmed via Twitter that it would be Dominic West. “Our new Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki),” they declared.