The Crown’s new season is set in the 1990s (Picture: Keith Bernstein/Netflix Provider/PA)
In just a few weeks, season 5 of The Crown is set to drop on Netflix, introducing viewers to the new roster of actors taking over as members of the royal family in the acclaimed drama.
Elizabeth Debicki has succeeded Emma Corrin as Princess Diana, with Dominic West taking Josh O’Connor’s place as then-Prince Charles and Imelda Staunton stepping into Olivia Colman’s shoes as the late Queen Elizabeth II.
While many fans are excited for the historical drama to return – which depicts true as well as dramatised versions of events – there has been concern over the way the show is going to handle the portrayal of Princess Diana’s death in the new episodes.
Netflix recently confirmed that while the exact moment of the late Princess of Wales’ fatal car crash in 1997 will not be shown on screen, the events leading up to it will be included.
In a new interview, Tenet star Debicki was asked about the concerns over the sensitivity with which Diana’s death would be portrayed.
‘Well, I don’t really know about those concerns,’ she told Entertainment Weekly, before detailing the approach of The Crown creator Peter Morgan further.
Princess Diana was 36 years old when she died (Picture: John Stillwell/PA Wire)
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‘I’ll say that Peter and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors,’ she said.
‘The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer’s perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense.’
Debicki explained that from the first meeting she had with Morgan, she knew that she’d ‘entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deep caring way’, adding: ‘So that’s my experience of the show.’
West is starring as Prince Charles, who this year became King Charles III (Picture: Netflix)
West reflected on the fact that Prince Harry and Prince William were so young when their mother died, outlining how his two sons are currently of a similar age.
‘It’s a hell of a season, because it deals with Diana’s death and appalling scenes, like having to break that news to your sons, he stated.
‘I’ve got two boys of that age and so it’s a heavy, heavy responsibility to get it right and something I think we all take pretty seriously.’
It was recently reported that Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary had been postponed on the platform until next year amid backlash to The Crown’s upcoming fifth season.
A spokesperson for The Crown told Metro.co.uk: ‘The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events. Series 5 is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.’
The Crown season 5 drops on November 9 on Netflix.
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MORE : The Crown’s Emma Corrin thinks Princess Diana was ‘queer in many ways’
The drama will depict the events leading up to Diana’s death.