The final season of The Crown will release in two parts on Netflix this fall, the streamer has announced.
In a teaser trailer posted on social media, Imelda Staunton, who has played Queen Elizabeth II in its final two seasons, can be seen walking to the balcony at Buckingham Palace as a voiceover plays.
The three actresses who have played Elizabeth II—Claire Foy in the first two seasons, Olivia Colman in the middle seasons, and Imelda—are all seen in character talking about what the Crown is and what it has meant to hold up the mantle over the past 50 years.
“The Crown is a symbol of permanence,” Claire Foy’s Elizabeth II says. “It’s something you are, not what you do.”
“Some portrait of our natural selves is always lost,” adds Olivia Colman’s Monrach. “We have all made sacrifices. It is not a choice. It is a duty.”
Finally, the voice of Staunton as Elizabeth II asks: “But what about the life I put aside? The woman I put aside?”
The scene shows Foy’s Queen Elizabeth on an old television, while photos of Colman’s Queen Elizabeth are displayed on a table as Staunton walks by. Staunton is dressed as Queen Elizabeth in 2002 after a Service of Thanksgiving for her Golden Jubilee.
Peter Morgan, the creator of The Crown has not definitively stated when the series ends in regards to Queen Elizabeth II’s lifetime, but the final season is expected to touch upon the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and will introduce a young William and Catherine at the University of St. Andrews.
The first poster for the final season was also released on October 9th 2023 and showcases Diana, Princess of Wales—played by Elizabeth Debecki—in a sky blue bathing suit sitting on the diving board of the Jonikal, Mohammed Al Fayed’s yacht, in August 1997, in a reproduction of a famous image of Diana, taken one week before her death.
The first part of the final season will premiere on 16 November and the second part will release on 14 December.
