The upcoming season will cover Will and Kate’s courtship, Princess Diana’s final days, and more.
It’s only been a few short months since The Crown’s juicy fifth season was released on Netflix, but if you’re like us, you’re already craving more of this can’t-miss royal drama. This week, the streaming platform teased viewers with a morsel of the sixth and final season of the series, providing a first look at the show’s new William and Kate. Here’s what we know so far about the new cast and what to expect in season six.
Who will play Prince William and Kate Middleton in The Crown?
Netflix dropped three stills from the show, featuring Ed McVey as Prince William and Meg Bellamy as Kate Middleton. (Newcomer Rufus Kampa, not pictured, will portray William at age 15.) The images are thought to depict the couple at the University of St. Andrew’s, where they met and first began dating.
Both actors are up-and-coming performers with surprisingly sparse IMDb pages. According to Deadline, McVey is a recent graduate of Drama Centre London, while Bellamy has mostly performed in amateur projects. Bellamy and McVey will both be making their television debuts in the final season of the Netflix hit — and from the looks of it, they seem tailor-made for the roles.
What to know about The Crown’s final season
Season six picks up where the series left off, covering Princess Diana’s final days and stretching into the 2000s, recounting the administrations of Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair. Elizabeth Debicki will carry on in her role as the Princess of Wales, Dominic West will continue to depict Prince Charles, and Imelda Staunton will again wear the crown as Queen Elizabeth in the upcoming season.
The era was an eventful period for the royal family, giving The Crown‘s creators plenty of ground to cover — including Diana’s tragic car crash, William and Kate’s courtship, and Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles’ wedding. But what won’t be dramatized, the show’s creator Peter Morgan made clear in 2020, is the romance between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Morgan felt that, because their story is still unfolding, it would be too difficult to create a dramatic arc of their relationship.
“The Meghan and Harry story is nowhere near over yet,” Morgan told Town & Country. “And I’m happy that I’m never going to write it.”
When will season six of The Crown air?
Production was briefly paused last fall after the Queen’s death, out of respect for the monarch. The show resumed filming in late September after her funeral. Netflix hasn’t said when exactly the new season will air, but it’s expected to drop sometime in November or December of 2023, Esquire reports. We’re certainly hoping to be binging this sooner rather than later.
