The Crown Will Get 6 Seasons After All, Extending Imelda Staunton’s Reign

Don’t mess with Imelda. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images

Imelda Staunton must have given someone at Netflix a stern, Umbridge-esque talking-to, because she’s now getting two seasons of her own on The Crown, just like the Queens Elizabeth who came before her. Back when Netflix first announced that Staunton would take on the crown for the latter years of the show, after Olivia Colman, the streaming service said that the series would end with its fifth season, cutting short a pattern that started with Claire Foy’s two seasons on the show and was followed by Colman’s two seasons, each season roughly covering a decade. Then, creator Peter Morgan said he felt that the fifth season was “the perfect time and place to stop,� but now, he has apparently reverted to his original logic. “As we started to discuss the story lines for series five,� Morgan said, “it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons.�

So, to make it all clear, there will now be six seasons of The Crown. The first three have already aired. The fourth, still starring Olivia Colman & Co. and completed just before pandemic lockdowns went into effect, will air sometime in the future, and will introduce Princess Diana, played by Emma Corrin. The fifth and sixth seasons have yet to film and will star Imelda Staunton as QEII and her Mike Leigh–movie compatriot Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret. According to Variety, the sixth season will bring the story up to “the early 2000s,� so no, we’re still probably not getting a Meghan Markle story line.