"The Crown" Has Cast Dominic West as Prince Charles

From Oprah Magazine

• Netflix's The Crown has been confirmed for season 5, and it won't be the show's last despite previous reports.

• The casting has been announced, with actress Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, and Dominic West as Prince Charles.

• Ahead, everything we know about the final seasons of The Crown.

Calling all fans of The Crown: Boy, do we have some major news for you. Though creator Peter Morgan said, back in January of 2020, that the show would end in season 5, the period drama has now been guaranteed through season 6.

“As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons," he said, per Deadline "To be clear, Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present—it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail.”

In the lead-up to The Crown's return on November 15, 2020, the casting for seasons 5 and 6 have been rolling in. Elizabeth Debicki will be the show's final incarnation of Princess Diana, for example and The Affair's Dominic West will portray Prince Charles.

When will season 5 of The Crown premiere?

Chances are, in the month of November—but we can't say in what year, due to widespread filming delays. Season 1 premiered in November of 2016 and season 2 in 2017, while season 3 took a little longer to return to us with a 2019 release date. Season 4 is out on November 4, 2020.

New cast announcements are rolling in.

While Claire Foy played royal matriarch Queen Elizabeth II in seasons 1 and 2, Olivia Colman took over in season 3 and will reprise her role in the fourth. As for who's playing Her Majesty in The Crown's last season? The role will go to British actress Imelda Staunton. (You may recognize her best as Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter films).

The casting was first revealed last November, but Netflix quickly shot down the reports as "pure speculation." Now it seems that the news simply dropped a bit earlier than they intended.

"I have loved watching The Crown from the very start," Staunton told The Hollywood Reporter. "As an actor it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts. I am genuinely honored to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion."

So can the star take-on the Queen? Well, she is a BAFTA award-winning actress—and dare we say her resemblance to the esteemed matriarch is even stronger than that of her predecessors?

And following in Vanessa Kirby and Helena Bonham-Carter's footsteps, Oscar-nominated U.K. actress Lesley Manville will play the ever-entertaining Princess Margaret. Manville, who you've seen in Phantom Thread and Maleficent, issued a statement in July saying, "I could not be happier to be playing Princess Margaret. The baton is being passed on from two formidable actresses, and I really don’t want to let the side down. Furthermore to play siblings with my dear friend Imelda Staunton will be nothing short of a complete joy."

In August of 2020, we met our Prince Philip. Prolific actor Jonathan Pryce, perhaps most recognizable for playing the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, will take over for Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip. Recently, Pryce was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his work as Pope Francis in The Two Popes.

Dominic West, best known for his time in the riveting drama The Affair, will play Prince Charles. The seasons will follow the dissolution of Charles's marriage with Diana, largely due to his ongoing extramarital relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. The casting is being considered ironic, considering Wests's recent time in the tabloids: The married actor was spotted kissing co-star Lily James in Rome.

Last but not least, Elizabeth Debicki will play Diana in the 1990s. Given the proposed timeline, seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown will follow Diana and Charles' divorce, and likely will depict her death in 1997. Debicki is known for her work in the thriller Widows and The Great Gatsby. At 6'3," Debicki is considerably taller than Diana, who stood at 5'10." Actually, she is the same height as Prince William.

What years would the storyline cover in season 5?

While many The Crown fans were hoping to see the present-day royal drama portrayed on the small screen—you know, "Megxit," aka Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping down as senior royals—that now seems extremely unlikely.

Each season of the show roughly covers a decade of royal history, and from context clues, we can guess season 4 will cover the late 1970s to early 1990s. We do know that season 4 will zero in on Prince Charles' dramatic personal life...which is a nice way of saying he and Princess Diana's turbulent relationship will take center stage. They officially met in 1980 and got married in 1981. We can then factor in that Margaret Thatcher will join the fold, as we know actress Gillian Anderson was snagged to play the famed U.K. prime minister. The Iron Lady led Britain for a decade beginning in 1979.

So, if season 4 were to end in the late '80s to early '90s, we're guessing The Crown season 5 would take us through the following decade into the early 2000s. This time period covers key royal events like Prince Charles and Princess Diana's divorce in 1996 and Princess Diana's death the following year. Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother both died in 2002. They have been major characters since The Crown season 1—particularly Margaret—so it wouldn't be surprising to see the show follow the two until their end.

While Prince William and Kate Middleton castings are probably not in our future, it sounds like the finale of The Crown is going to be worth the wait.

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