Netflix has added a disclaimer to the text description accompanying its Season 5 trailer for “The Crown,” following backlash from British actors, politicians and more to its portrayal of the royal family’s inner workings.
Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign,” the disclaimer reads, in a first for the streamer. Trailers for previous seasons have not included such language. You can watch the Season 5 trailer above.
In full, the description continues: “It’s a new decade, and the royal family are facing what may be their biggest challenge yet: proving their continued relevance in ‘90s Britain. As Diana and Charles wage a media war, cracks begin to splinter the royal foundation.”
Judi Dench was the latest to call on Netflix to add a disclaimer to the Emmy-winning drama, stating in an open letter to The Times Thursday that the series “seems willing to blur the lines” with “crude sensationalism.”
While maintaining that it’s a “brilliant but fictionalised account of events,” the U.K. acting royalty and Oscar winner had gotten wind of “wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series” that she believes requires an explicit message to viewers that what they’re watching is more fiction than fact. “I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true,” she wrote, adding that “no one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.”
“The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism,” she said.
A call for such a disclaimer has been brewing for the last several years, perhaps most prominently with former culture secretary Oliver Dowden advising in 2020 that a “health warning” should be played before episodes to indicate the series’ fiction.
The language used in the disclaimer seen on the Season 5 trailer has already been commonly included in “The Crown” press materials and social media accounts, but never on trailers. It has still not been included as part of the streaming experience on Netflix.
