The countdown for The Crown’s second season on Netflix is a bit of a double-edged sword — we want, we crave, the royal drama, but that also means we have to bid farewell to all of the leads, who are being re-cast once the season ends. (Age, that pesky minx.) One fun tidbit that has emerged from this transitional period, though, has been that Queen Elizabeth has apparently watched and enjoyed the series, a fact that The Crown’s showrunner, Peter Morgan, really hopes isn’t true. “You do hear these rumors. I never know whether to believe them. In my own heart of hearts, I sort of want to pretend that she hasn’t watched, and I hope she never does because then I can say, ‘I don’t know.’ Not knowing is the best way,†he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “I want them to have that privacy, and I want us to have our privacy, and I don’t want to feel that I’m writing this at all to get their approval. I don’t want them to feel disappointed. I think it’s good when both sides have their independence.â€
As mentioned, last month it was reported by a “senior royal source†in the British media that Her Majesty devoured the series in the countryside with her son and daughter-in-law, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, over the course of one weekend. Like Morgan, Claire Foy is quite skeptical that this leisurely down-time actually occurred.