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The interminable month of January comes to a close with some truly terrible news: Season 5 of The Crown will be its last, Deadline reports, alongside confirmation that Imelda Staunton will play Queen Elizabeth for the show’s final installment.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to confirm Imelda Staunton as Her Majesty the The Queen for the fifth and final season, taking The Crown into the 21st century,” creator and showrunner Peter Morgan said in a statement. “Imelda is an astonishing talent and will be a fantastic successor to Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.”
Morgan also explained his decision to end the series early, after Netflix content cheif Ted Sarandos confirmed the show would run six seasons back in November 2016. “At the outset I had imagined The Crown running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for season 5 it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop,” Morgan said. “I’m grateful to Netflix and Sony for supporting me in this decision.”
Morgan’s announcement is shocking given the tumult surrounding the royal family in recent years. The queen’s third child, Prince Andrew, is deeply entrenched in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exit from the royal family earlier this month spurred dozens of Twitter jokes about Markle playing herself on a future season of the show.
Staunton, of course, is most famous for her role as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films. She recently appeared in the Downton Abbey movie as a new character, Lady Bagshaw. Rumors of her casting in The Crown extend to November 2019, shortly after the show’s third season premiered.
In a statement to Netflix about her casting, Staunton said, “I have loved watching The Crown from the very start. As an actor it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts. I am genuinely honoured to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion.”