‘The Crown’ Season 6 New Pics: Diana in Her Final Days, Plus New Princes William and Harry

Mike Crisolago | October 16th, 2023

Fflyn Edwards as Prince Harry, Elizabeth Debicki as Diana and Rufus Kampa as Prince William in the first half of Season 6 of 'The Crown.' The roles of the princes will be played by older actors in the second half of the season. Photo: Daniel Escale/Netflix

A week after Netflix dropped the first trailer for the sixth and final season of The Crown, the streaming giant released new photos from the upcoming instalment of the series.

The sixth season — which will be divided into two parts, with four episodes released on Nov. 16 and the final six released on Dec. 14 — focusses on the Royal Family in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Most notably, the season includes the final days and death of Diana, Charles’ wedding to Camilla and the burgeoning relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton (Netflix had previously released photos of the actors playing the couple in their early courtship).

The new images from the season hint at some of those plot lines, with multiple shots of Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) looking pensive — including among reporters, as well as in the backseat of a car with boyfriend Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). Both Debicki and Abdalla reprise their roles from the show’s fifth season. In another photo illustrating the loneliness Diana felt at that point in her life, she’s seen standing alone in a bathing suit on a massive yacht.

“I think it’s a really unique challenge as an actor, to portray those days,” Debicki told Netflix’s Tudum. “I really just trusted in Peter’s [Morgan, the show’s creator] emotional blueprint that he created for us to follow. It’s his interpretation and I think it made emotional sense to me, so I clung to that. Because, obviously, it’s devastating and it’s fraught and we can never know.”

Other images introduce the new actors playing Princes William and Harry (Rufus Kampa and Fflyn Edwards respectively), including shots of the boys with both their mother and their father, then-Prince Charles (played by Dominic West, 54, reprising his role from the fifth season). Kampa and Edwards will pass the roles of William and Harry off to two older actors, Ed McVey and Luther Ford, for the second half of the sixth season.

“I think he’s got real sadness to him and real compassion,” West told Tudum when discussing playing the future king. “I suspect in private he’s quite emotional, well that’s the way I played him anyway … I think, hopefully, what comes out is compassionate but relatively well-balanced.”

Other shots include one of the returning Imelda Staunton, 67, as Queen Elizabeth II, and actor Salim Daw, 73, as Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Imelda Staunton said of playing Queen Elizabeth II, “I love her stillness and her ability to not be thrown by everything that must have constantly — throughout her whole life — gone on around her.” Photo: Justin Downing/Netflix

Salim Daw, as Mohamed Al-Fayed, must deal with the tragic fallout of his son Dodi’s death in the final season of ‘*The Crown’*. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.

The trailer for the final season focussed heavily on the Queen and her sense of duty, with images of former Crown Queens Claire Foy and Olivia Colman shown alongside Staunton.

Staunton told Tudum that, “I’ve been living with her for a long time so, if anything, I felt more comfortable this time. I love her stillness and her ability to not be thrown by everything that must have constantly — throughout her whole life — gone on around her.”

Other cast members returning for the sixth season of The Crown include Lesley Manville, 67, as Princess Margaret; Jonathan Pryce, 76, as Prince Philip; Claudia Harrison, 47, as Princess Anne; and Olivia Williams, 55, as Camilla Parker Bowles. Actress Meg Bellamy joins the cast as Kate Middleton.

The Ghost of Diana on The Crown?

Though it’s still a month away from its debut, the sixth season of The Crown has already reportedly ruffled some royal feathers due to the fact that Diana’s ghost will make multiple appearances in the final season.

Vanity Fair, noting a Daily Mail story on the subject, reported that the ghost of the former Princess of Wales appears to both Charles and the Queen in the final season. The stories suggest that the ghost tells Charles, “You know I loved you so much. So deeply, so painfully, too. That’s over now. It will be easier for everyone with me gone,” while saying to the Queen, “I know it must be terrifying … As long as anyone can remember, you’ve taught us what it means to be British. Maybe it’s time to show you’re ready to learn, too.”

The Vanity Fair story adds that a supposed confidant of Prince William expressed the Prince of Wales’ disgust with the depiction, while a Netflix spokesperson defended the creative decision, noting, “After her death, Diana appears as part of an inner dialogue in separate scenes with Prince Charles and the Queen” and that, “These sensitive and thoughtful imagined conversations seek to bring to life the depth of emotion that was felt after such a seismic tragedy struck at the heart of the family.”

Judge for yourself when the sixth season of the award-winning series premieres on Nov. 16.

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