THE CROWN'S REIGN ENDS

AS THE FINAL SEASON OF THE NETFLIX HIT DEBUTS, QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DEATH LOOMS LARGE. HOW THE ROYAL DRAMA RESHAPED THE LATE MONARCH'S IMAGE 

- JANINE HENNI

It's been seven years since The Crown premiered on Netflix, introducing a new generation to the sprawling story of Queen Elizabeth and the modern royal family. Now, one year after the death of the long-serving monarch at age 96, the hit royal saga, which has featured a rotating cast during its run, is making its final curtsy. The sixth season will premiere in two parts: Part 1 (debuting Nov. 16) follows Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) in the weeks leading up to her fatal 1997 car crash, while part 2 (debuting Dec. 14) will focus on the aftermath of Diana's death and the budding romance between Prince William (Ed McVey) and Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy). Although the final season wraps with the events of 2005, the death of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 8, 2022, led series creator Peter Morgan to change the show's initial ending. In real life "we'd all been through the experience of the [Queen's] funeral," he told Variety. "So because of how deeply everybody will have felt that, I had to try and find a way in which the final episode dealt with [her] death, even though [the character] hadn't died yet."