The queen's death "reactivated a sense of purpose" on the set of The Crown

The Crown has been one of Netflix’s most acclaimed original releases since its premiere in 2016, but more eyes will be on it than ever when the fifth season launches next week. Between the increased scrutiny of the real British royal family following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September and how the new episodes depict events from fairly recent history, the pressure is on.

Furthermore, a third generation of actors is stepping into these well-established roles, and comparisons to their previous counterparts are inevitable. The New York Times recently sat down with Elizabeth Debicki, the next Princess Diana, and Dominic West, who plays (now King) Charles, to discuss the new context the series will be viewed with.

“I asked Peter [Morgan, The Crown’s creator] or Netflix a few times last year, ‘What’s going to happen when the queen dies?’” West recalls. “And they said, ‘Pretty much nothing.’ I was struck when she died that there wasn’t any sense of, ‘Oh no, oh gosh, we’ve been awful.’ What it underlined for me was the degree of respect with which the writers and everybody have taken these stories and these figures. It was comforting that there was no sense of needing to re-evaluate things.”

The cast was at work on the forthcoming sixth season when the news of the queen’s death broke. Filming paused briefly, and the team was given the day off for the royal funeral.

“I think it reactivated a sense of purpose,” Debicki says of the mood on set. “I feel like there was, if I’m honest, a lot of sadness. A real sense of loss. A lot of people I spoke to were surprised by how deeply they were affected by it.”

Season five of The Crown will be available on Netflix on November 9.