The Stars of Netflix’s The Crown Tease the Final Episodes

After six seasons and 21 Emmy Awards, the final installment of The Crown final season, part 2 is finally here. With Part 1 tracing the tragic romance of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, The Crown season 6, Part 2, picks up only two months later. Netflix’s royal drama will not delve into Meghan and Harry’s Megxit, but The Crown does cover Prince William’s romance with Kate Middleton, Queen Elizabeth II’s final days with Princess Margaret, and the wedding of not-yet-King Charles and Camille Parker Bowls.

Related: ‘The Crown’ Actors Playing Diana and Dodi Reveal What To Expect in the Final Season

As The Crown concludes, stars Dominic West (Prince Charles), Olivia Williams (Camilla Parker Bowles), Ed McVey (William), Meg Bellamy (Kate), and Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) preview what we can expect from the final episodes. Plus, Imelda Staunton (Queen Elizabeth) dishes her predecessors Claire Foy and Olivia Colman and taking off The Crown.

Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy Talk The Crown’s Prince William and Kate

When we pick up The Crown’s final episodes, ‘Willsmania’ is about to explode, but young Prince William is still mourning his mother and coming to terms with his role as the future king.

“He is constantly dealing with grief and that never goes away,” Ed McVey, who assumes the role of Prince William in the final episodes, previews. “But there's such growth. He deals with his sense of duty, coming to terms with the fact that he will wear the crown one day. It's a big journey and there are highs and lows.”

As Prince William becomes a reluctant heartthrob, he struggles to balance his desire for normalcy with the constraints of his position and the constant presence of his security team. The familiar royal conflict escalates at St. Andrews University when William sets his site on Kate Middleton.

While many of us watched that romance play out in tabloids, The Crown takes viewers into the excitement and awkwardness of young love.

“We didn't want to make it a smooth journey, meeting, falling in love and then getting together,” McVey explains. “We wanted it to be stagnated and weird, as relationships are.”

His leading lady, Meg Bellamy, notes that while the budding couple faces royal issues, she most enjoyed playing the simple, college love story.

“It is a process through their journey of ups and downs – through her being in a relationship with somebody else and how that causes friction and the longing and wanting to explore a relationship with William, but not being able to,” Bellamy previews. “Finally, when they do get to know each other, the beauty of that blossoming, almost the honeymoon period of their relationship was magic to film.”

Even as The Crown explores Prince William’s relationship with his future wife, the final episodes also reflect the support he finds in his grandparents. With Mohamed Al Fayed pursuing a high-profile campaign to prove the Royal Family was responsible for Diana and Dodi’s deaths, it is at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee – which is a fashion show viewers will love attending! – where Prince William finally settles into his role.

“Just watching William and Harry step out onto that balcony, for my character, that's one of those big tipping points,” McVey says. “He's like, ‘This is my future and I have got good pillars with me in Philip and the Queen. It's scary, but it's going to be OK.’”

Dominic West and Olivia Williams Talks The Crown’s Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles

The final episodes of The Crown also see Prince Charles finally propose to and marry the woman he loves – after he gets permission from the Queen Mother, of course!

“It happens in a potting shed,” Olivia Williams (Camilla) teases of the proposal. “I think that defines their life and the pursuits they really enjoy in a way that was just charming. I loved that.

“As soon as Charles feels he can share the news, he wants to,” she continues. “He's sort of bursting with enthusiasm for it, and that's so human and identifiable – it doesn't matter how old they are or what they've been through.”

After all these years, Charles will finally get to marry the woman of his dreams. With Camille nothing like Princess Diana, the civil ceremony in the Windsor Registry Office is nothing like his first epic wedding.

“There's such humility to Camille and such reluctance for the limelight,” Dominic West (Charles) notes. “She can't compete with this superstar Diana and even the scenes we were filming of the wedding, they're both terrified, but she's particularly terrified.

“They were terrified of being booed or having eggs thrown at them – which happened quite a lot and it's still happening,” he adds. “They're in the pillory and I think that's what makes their love even stronger and more impressive.”

Lesley Manville Talks Princess Margaret’s Final Days on The Crown

In The Crown’s aptly titled season 6 episode, “Ritz,” Princess Margaret is taken by a memory of a wild night at The Ritz with her sister. Even as The Crown traces the princess’ lonely final days, it also celebrates Margaret’s lifelong relationship with her sister, Queen Elizabeth II.

“Their scenes together in episode 8 of season 6 are very, very beautiful and touching and poignant, but with this wonderful humorous thread through them,” Lesley Manville (Margaret) previews. “Because we know Margaret can't resist humor! You see that wonderful spark and twinkle and repartee that these two sisters have together. It's a beautiful observation and filming those scenes with Imelda (Staunton) has been a real highlight for me.”

The sisters’ sad goodbye starts when Margaret suffers a stroke just before her seventieth birthday. While the princess is confident she’ll be back in form to celebrate, the Queen can’t help but worry over her party-loving sister — and with good reason. With Margaret in denial, her health deteriorates and as it does, she keeps coming back to that night at The Ritz.

“It's like a little bee in her bonnet that Margaret's got about wanting people to know about Elizabeth that night because it was the other side to Elizabeth that nobody's ever seen – the risqué, the daring, the bold, the free,” Manville says. “She was a young girl out in London. She didn't know she was going to be a queen, THE Queen. Back then, because circumstances were so different, Margaret and Elizabeth were not so dissimilar.

“It's an emotional episode because, certainly for Margaret, her sister was the love of her life,” she adds, “and you see them having to come to terms with the fact that Margaret is not going to be there.”

Imelda Staunton Talks The Crown final episodes

For the Queen at the center of this tale, The Crown remains a story of carrying a monarchy through changing times, and prime minister Tony Blair’s rise will test her. That said, this final season is also one of love stories. While the first installment investigates Diana and Dodie’s fateful end, The Crown season 6, Part 2, brings to the fore William and Kate, closes the book on sisters Margaret and Elizabeth, and ends with the soon-to-be King Charles’ happily ever after with Camille.

Heavy may be the crown, but Imelda Staunton (Queen Elizabeth) and her costars were sad to remove the ones they’ve worn – and shared! – over the last six seasons.

“I'm going to be bereft for a while, but I've felt, from the beginning, so utterly proud to be part of this,” says Staunton, who shared her role with Emmy-winners Claire Foy and Olivia Colman. “We all owe everything to Claire Foy, who set the bar impossibly high. And then, for Olivia to have to follow that, and she just carried it on.

“People love The Crown,” concludes Imelda Staunton. “The ability, the talent, the creativity of [creator/showrunner] Peter Morgan screams from the hilltops. We're all just parts of this beautiful jigsaw that he has made of this fascinating story. Whether it's Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria, these stories will be told forever and Peter Morgan has made sure we've told this part of the story absolutely brilliantly.”

The Crown’s finale episodes will stream on Netflix starting December 14. 

For more on The Crown and the real royals, click the links below!

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