The Crown has become one of Netflix’s crown jewels since its premiere in 2016. The series started with the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign and moved through the decades as she endured countless ups and downs. Part 2 of season 6 premiered on December 14 and put the lives of the next generation of royals in center stage.
The royal family is still very much in the global spotlight today, and there’s been plenty of drama amongst the real-life royals. Will there be a season 7 of The Crown? Here’s the latest news about a potential seventh season.
Is The Crown Coming Back for Season 7?
As of now, The Crown will not be returning for season 7. Back in 2020, creator Peter Morgan revealed that the Netflix series would end with season 6. The creator had been back and forth about ending the show after the fifth and sixth seasons.
“As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, 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,” he said in a statement. “To be clear, season 6 will not bring us any closer to present day – it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”
The final episode of The Crown season 6 ends in 2005. Queen Elizabeth II lived another 17 years before she died in 2022. Given the timeline, the show doesn’t tackle Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding, the arrival of Prince George and more royals, anything regarding Prince Andrew’s scandal, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s romance, Megxit, or Prince William and Prince Harry’s rift.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told Variety that during the show’s development, there were discussions about ending the show with the queen’s death. Morgan feels comfortable with stopping the show in 2005. “It was the cutoff to keep it historical, not journalistic,” he told Variety. “I think by stopping almost 20 years before the present day, it’s dignified.”
Morgan had previously explained why he wouldn’t feature Prince Harry and Meghan’s relationship and their exit from the royal family. “I just think you get so much more interesting [with time]. Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey, and I don’t know what their journey is or how it will end,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. “One wishes some happiness, but I’m much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago. I sort of have in my head a 20-year rule. That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance.”
He continued, “Often things that appear absolutely wildly important today are instantly forgotten, and other things have a habit of sticking around and proving to be historically very relevant and long-lasting. I don’t know where in the scheme of things Prince Andrew or indeed Meghan Markle or Harry will ever appear. We won’t know, and you need time to stop something being journalistic. And so I don’t want to write about them because to write about them would instantly make it journalistic.”
However, in the world of Hollywood, never say never. The Crown could make a comeback in 10 years or so. As long as the crown lives on in real life, there will be plenty of stories to tell.
Is The Crown Season 6 Going To Be the Last Season?
Yes, season 6 of The Crown will be the final season of the Netflix series. The show was split into two parts for its final season. Part 1, consisting of the first 4 episodes, launched on November 16. The final 6 episodes dropped on December 14. All 6 seasons are currently available to stream on Netflix.
Part 1 of season 6 covered Princess Diana’s romance with Dodi Fayed, her tragic death, and the immediate aftermath. Part 2 focused much more on Prince William, introduced Kate Middleton, and addressed Princess Margaret’s death.
What We Know About The Crown Prequel
While Morgan has ruled out a seventh season of The Crown for now, he has thought about a prequel. “I do have an idea,” he told Variety. “But first, I need to do some other things. Second, it would need a unique set of circumstances to come together.”
His idea for a Crown prequel would take place before Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. “Yes. If I were to go back into The Crown, it would definitely be to go back in time,” he noted. Sarandos added, “I have absolute faith in Peter. And if he believes there are stories to be told there, we definitely would explore it.”