In less than a month, The Crown will begin its final season. After being one of the earliest Netflix original series to debut in 2016, The Crown has gone on to be one of the most critically acclaimed and award winning shows from the streamer, earning Emmy Awards for Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Gillian Anderson, and more.
The Crown began depicting Queen Elizabeth II's reign starting with her sudden ascension to the throne in 1952, and it will now conclude in 2005.
The final season will cover events from 1997 through 2005 and, unlike previous seasons, it will be split into two parts, with Part 1, aka the first four episodes, focusing heavily on Princess Diana, her relationship with Dodi Fayed, and their deaths in 1997.
To put into perspective how close we are to Princess Diana's death in the context of The Crown, in the Season 5 finale we saw her attend a performance of Swan Lake, which happened in real life in June 1997. Princess Diana died in August 1997, a mere two months later.
According to the official press release from Netflix about the first part of the final season, "In their first summer as a divorced couple, Prince Charles and Princess Diana share very different holidays with their sons. Diana is being courted by the Fayeds in the South of France, giving the young Princes a taste of luxury yachts, video games, and movie nights. Charles is sticking to tradition in Balmoral. The comparisons play out in the press, fueled by a fervent paparazzi, and some of the Royal press team."
You can see how the final weeks of Diana's life, particularly spending time with the Fayeds, will be a centerpiece for these first four episodes, with the poster (and trailer) for Season 6, Part 1 featuring a recreation of Princess Diana sitting on a diving board on Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht a week before she died.
Alongside her time with the Fayeds, we'll also see Diana's humanitarian work, namely her visits to Bosnia and Angola shortly before her death in 1997.
"As yacht life and the constant media scrutiny loses its appeal, Diana longs to return to see her boys, who are back in Balmoral. A diversion to Paris sees matters come to a head — against the backdrop of an intensified and aggressive media pursuit," per the official The Crown Season 6, Part 1 description.
Of course, the diversion to Paris leads to the fatal car crash involving Diana and Dodi. According to Netflix, the show will also explore the days after Princess Diana's death: "After the news breaks of Diana and Dodi’s fatal car accident, a vast outpouring of public grief catches the Queen off-guard."
"With shockwaves resonating through the Palace, Al Fayed is also processing the loss of his cherished son. Hoping that the news will bring him and the Royal Family together in shared grief; he instead finds himself increasingly shunned."
The Crown Season 6, Part 1 focusing heavily on Diana is something that creator Peter Morgan recently spoke to Variety about, even admitting that he "dreaded" writing Princess Diana into the series overall because of the sheer weight of having to depict such a beloved member of the Royal Family.
There has been speculation about whether or not The Crown will depict the Paris car crash, but Peter set the record straight in his interview with Variety, saying, "Oh, God, we were never going to show the crash. Never."
You can watch the full trailer for The Crown Season 6, Part 1 below:
