When Peter Morgan announced The Crown‘s sixth season would be its last, there was already a wealth of royal drama to justify (and, arguably, even require) the show’s continuance.
The spare had defected to America with his wife — and the fact that she was a divorcée and non-British made it all pretty full circle with where the show began, with Edward VIII abdicating for a similar destiny with Wallis Simpson. After departing the U.K. with so much urgency, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle then went very, very rogue by airing the palace’s dirtiest laundry for all the world to see in their jaw-dropping Oprah interview. For a firm family that’d always been so militant about abiding by protocol, a system of stricture The Crown showcased very well from start to finish, the Sussexes’ moves were and remain completely unprecedented. It was exactly the type of drama that fit the mold of The Crown‘s storytelling style because these were the kinds of headlines Queen Elizabeth II spent her entire lifetime trying to avoid. Still, the show declined to cover it and only vaguely even alluded to Queen Elizabeth’s death with a brief final tribute scene, making it feel rather incomplete.
Now, thanks to even more recent events, it’s all but impossible for the show’s legacy to be a lasting one without continuing further into currency. The Crown has always been at its strongest when showcasing the sovereign’s dedication to duty above all and her fear of seeing the monarchy crumble. The aftermath of her absence, then, has been remarkable, in that the castle seems more like a house of cards than ever lately, brimming with muddled media messaging, very publicized family feuds, shocking legal scandals, and, of course, major health dilemmas.
The latest chapter in the new royals’ saga is the announcement by Princess Kate that she is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, after recovering from major abdominal surgery earlier in the year. She is the second senior royal to reveal such a diagnosis, following King Charles III, but it’s not her worrying health crisis that makes the situation so ripe for The Crown‘s return. Instead, it’s the gobsmackingly chaotic way in which all of this was handled.
Under Elizabeth II’s rule, as The Crown depicts, the British press was treated as a faithful royal rota, often doing the crown’s bidding in exchange for the royals’ cooperation and access. Now, Kensington Palace has been deemed an “untrustworthy” source, after disseminating a doctored Mother’s Day image of Kate and her children. (That dishonor is afforded to few state actors, including North Korea, by the way.) The picture was likely meant to dispel concerns about her continued absence from public view but had the exact opposite effect. Instead of quelling any concerns about her well-being, it threw gasoline on the flame of public intrigue. From there, things only got worse, as conspiracy theorists ran amok with claims that subsequent photos of her were staged, and the palace’s reactions read as disorganized and even a bit desperate (like Kate taking to social media to take the blame for the altered imaging).
Another recent scandal that would more than warrant inclusion in The Crown for continuity’s sake is the downfall of Prince Andrew (who, the show seemed to note, was the queen’s apparent favorite child) thanks to his reported affiliation with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. That matter was similarly made worse by sloppy media preparation, and his infamously unhelpful 2019 BBC Newsnight interview is even being serialized in Scoop, a Netflix movie hitting the streamer on April 5.
Plus, the stunning details of familial infighting — particularly between the future king, Prince William, and his brother, which were revealed in searing detail in Harry’s own autobiography Spare — have produced such a massive rift in the senior royal family structure that the days of Elizabeth and Margaret’s bitter bickers over the princess’ romantic choices seem quaint in comparison.
The Crown‘s final season ended in 2005, spanning from Princess Diana’s tragic death to the queen’s blessing of Charles’ wedding to Camilla. The story of Prince William’s early romantic relationship with Kate Middleton was essentially just a footnote. And it didn’t cover the catastrophic fallout between House Cambridge and House Sussex, even though it should have.
Without capturing the turmoil that has captured so many imaginations in recent years, the thesis of The Crown is just not fulfilled. The story sought to show Queen Elizabeth’s long and increasingly fraught fight to reign in an era where royals were no longer powerful and largely just figureheads, with tight messaging control as her go-to maneuver. The events that have transpired since her death have upended all of that effort, threatening the reputation of the royals to the point that many prognosticators foresee an end to that institution as a result of her steady, bejeweled hand no longer being in the mix. The fact that it’s even a conversation is an ending in and of itself, and without addressing any of these things, The Crown seems like a show that got canceled in what was supposed to be its penultimate season.