The Crown’s Season 6 Cast and Their Real-Life Counterparts
The Crown has already dramatized five decades of British royal history, beginning with Queen Elizabeth’s 1947 wedding to Prince Philip and ending season five with Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s much-publicized divorce. The sixth and final season of The Crown, which premieres its first part November 16 and its second December 14, may be the drama’s most controversial yet, given that episodes will reimagine events still somewhat fresh in viewers’ memories. Spanning 1997 to the 2000s, the final episodes will reimagine Diana’s death, Prince William’s college courtship of Kate Middleton, and, reportedly, another royal wedding. Here, we break down The Crown cast—with side-by-side photos of the actors and the real-life royals they depict in the drama’s most modern season.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
The impending tragedy of Diana’s death loomed over season five’s final episode. In season six, Debicki brings to life Diana’s last moments, including the chaotic paparazzi chase that preceded her fatal car accident. “No one should ever be having to experience what it feels like,” Debicki recently said about filming the late princess’s frightening paparazzi pursuits. “You feel very trapped…. It’s really horrendous to have that many people yelling at you and wanting something.”
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Dominic West as Prince Charles
Remember breakdancing Prince Charles? Well, you won’t be seeing him this season. West said that the final episodes depict “the worst period” of the royal’s life, with “Charles trying to come to terms with [Diana’s death] and breaking the news to his sons, trying to help his sons mourn.”
It sounds like Charles eventually finds happier days on the series, though. Charles’s 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles reportedly features in the final episodes.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth
Following Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, Staunton is the third and final actor to play the monarch on the Netflix series. And the sixth season will bring yet more difficulty for the drama’s central character. In 2002, just five years after her controversial public response to Diana’s death, the real-life queen lost the two people in the world who knew her best—her sister, Princess Margaret, and the Queen Mother.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Luther Ford as Prince Harry
Though Prince Harry is currently the most headline-making royal—er, ex-royal—Charles and Diana’s youngest son doesn’t get too much airtime in The Crown’s final season. “I do little bits of dramatization of Harry, but mainly only in relationship to William,” series creator Peter Morgan recently told Variety. Morgan has likely avoided Prince Harry storylines for the same reason he has mostly avoided Prince Andrew: because neither is in the direct line of succession.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Meg Bellamy and Ed McVey as Kate Middleton and Prince William
The Crown’s fourth season reimagined Prince Charles’s disastrous early days with Diana—highlighting the pressure on him to find a suitable bride and the pressure on her to suddenly acclimate to public life. So it will be interesting to see how Morgan approaches Prince William and Kate Middleton’s early days together at St. Andrews, with the series’ fourth-generation heir to the throne played by McVey and his future bride played by Bellamy. (We just hope that the series dramatizes the 2002 fashion show in which Middleton walked as a model.)
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Claudia Harrison as Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne was season three’s surprise royal MVP, and she’s always good for an errant wisecrack or swift grounding. But with so many royal milestones to cover, it’s likely Anne will remain on the periphery this season—that is, unless Morgan decides to delve into Anne’s criminal past. (In 2002, she became the first royal family member with a criminal record when she pleaded guilty to charges of losing control of her dog, which had bitten two children.)
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles
With “Tampongate” in the rearview, Camilla Parker Bowles moves on to lighter occasions in The Crown’s new season—like the “Arabian Nights”–themed birthday party Prince Charles threw her in 1997, complete with a ’70s disco band. (Williams promised us there will be awkward dancing.) The aughts proved to be a long-awaited coming out for Parker Bowles, who made her public debut alongside Prince Charles in 1999 and then married the heir to the throne in 2005.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip
After Princess Diana died, Prince Philip helped his grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry mourn their mother. It was Philip who convinced the boys to walk behind their mother’s coffin in the memorable procession from Kensington Palace to London’s Westminster Abbey, reportedly telling them, “I’ll walk if you walk.” The heartbreaking moment will almost certainly be depicted on the series.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret
The once glamorous royal faces a sad final chapter in the drama’s last episodes, which will likely chronicle Margaret’s rapidly declining health. Manville, who also played Margaret in season five, told VF last year, “It must be very hard to have had that glamorous life and then to feel that it’s on the wane…. It’s very difficult for any woman to deal with. But I think when you’ve been in the spotlight as much as she was, that was an extra challenge.”
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Marcia Warren as the Queen Mother
The Queen Mother bore witness to four generations of royals before dying in 2002 at the age of 101, making her the longest-living British royal at the time. On The Crown, the character has always been a welcome relief from all of that stuffiness and formality; she is one of the only characters comfortable snapping at the queen.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed
The Crown’s fifth season introduced Dodi Fayed, billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed’s playboy son who allegedly began dating Princess Diana at his father’s insistence. The sixth season will dramatize Dodi and Diana’s final hours together and their unlikely relationship.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Matilda Broadbridge as Pippa Middleton
The younger sister of Kate Middleton, Pippa will likely prove a sibling sounding board as Kate navigates new pressure as the woman dating the world’s most eligible bachelor.
From Getty Images/Courtesy of Netflix.Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair
Queen Elizabeth’s 10th prime minister is a familiar subject for Peter Morgan. The Crown’s creator previously dramatized Blair in the 2003 TV drama The Deal, the 2006 film The Queen, and the 2010 movie The Special Relationship. Morgan has gotten so good at scripting Blair’s conversations that, according to the Emmy-winning writer, the former PM even plagiarized his writing. (Blair insisted he’d never seen the film featuring the line in question.)
