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The Crown Season 5: Premiere Date, Cast, Plot, and Trailer

Watch "The Crown" Season 5 Trailer and Get a First Look at the New Royal Family Cast

Oct 20 2022

It's been over a year since "The Crown" aired its Emmy-winning fourth season, and we're eager to see what happens next. The Netflix drama, set to run for a total of six seasons, premieres its fifth series next month, which will retrace the royal family's reign in the late '80s/early '90s — arguably their most difficult decade to navigate in the wake of the 24-hour news cycle.

Netflix dropped the trailer on 20 Oct. proving the series will be full of high drama as we get a first glimpse of the new cast. Beginning with the Queen, played by Imelda Staunton, watching Windsor Castle on fire, the trailer depicts multiple failed royal marriages and scandalous phone calls to political turmoil and, of course, Princess Diana's looming death. However, recent royal events will not be addressed in season five, including the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 Sept.

Still, "The Crown" creator Peter Morgan did pause season six's production out of respect for the long-reigning monarch. The short break in filming did not affect season five's premiere date, which is still set for early November, as Netflix confirmed on 24 Sept. during its global fan event Tudum.

On 14 Oct. Netflix released first-look images of the cast, including Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki and taking over from Emma Corrin) looking melancholy as Prince Charles and Camilla (played by Dominic West and Olivia Williams respectively) get closer. Another happier image shows Diana and Charles holidaying on a speedboat with their sons, Prince William (Timothee Sambor) and Prince Harry (Teddy Hawley).

As the show follows a particularly turbulent period for the Royals, Debicki told Tudum, "That's the amazing thing about playing these people at this time, because in the journey of The Crown so far out of all the seasons, this is the most visual content we have of the Royal Family. In the '90s everything had started to be filmed and also it was the birth of the 24-hour news cycle so there's just this incredible amount of content that we have access to."

Staunton hopes her portrayal of the late monarch will do justice to the queen. "What has been nice, and I hope I don't prove them wrong, is people saying, 'I'm really looking forward to seeing her as the queen. So, let's just hope that works out for them because I've done it. Nothing I can do about it now!"

With a brand-new cast arriving to take the series into the home stretch, there are more questions than ever about what's next for "The Crown" and what material it will aim to tackle this time around. From when it's premiering to who's in the new cast, keep reading for the most up-to-date information about "The Crown" season five, including the much anticipated trailer.

Image Source: Netflix

"The Crown" Season 5 Trailer

"The Crown" Season 5 Cast

None of the previous cast members will be returning for "The Crown" season five. Instead, a fresh cast will take on the roles for the final two seasons. The new cast will feature Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II; Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip; Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret; Dominic West as Prince Charles; and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana.

New characters will arrive too, most notably Jonny Lee Miller as the new prime minister, John Major. Variety reported that Khalid Abdalla will play Dodi Fayed, while Salim Daw will play his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Image Source: Everett Collection

"The Crown" Season 5 Plot

Season four's finale takes place over Christmas 1990, so the fifth season will surely take viewers deeper into the '90s (the show has historically covered a decade per season), a particularly turbulent time for the royal family.

In 1992 alone, a year the queen called her "annus horribilis," the family went through one finalised divorce and two separations (both of which later ended in divorce), the publication of a tell-all book, leaked phone conversations, and a fire at a royal residence. Viewers will also probably see the increasing animosity between Princess Diana and the rest of the royal family, which played out in a very public fashion.

Politically, the timeline indicates that the season will focus mostly on the tenure of John Major as prime minister. And, of course, the most notable event in the '90s was the 1997 death of Diana in a car crash in Paris, which will be depicted sometime during season five. Another major event that will also be shown is the infamous 1993 "tampongate" phone call between Charles and Camilla, according to Dominic West.

"I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing [at the time]," he told Entertainment Weekly, confirming that he reenacted the scene with costar Olivia Williams. "Looking back on it, and having to play it, what you're conscious of is that the blame was not with these two people, two lovers, who were having a private conversation. What's really [clear now] is how invasive and disgusting was the press's attention to it, that they printed it out verbatim and you could call a number and listen to the actual tape. I think it made me extremely sympathetic towards the two of them and what they'd gone through."

Image Source: Everett Collection

"The Crown" Season 5 Release Date

"The Crown" season 5 is arriving on 9 Nov. on Netflix.

Image Source: Netflix

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"The Crown" Season 5 First-Look Photos

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

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