Elizabeth Debicki paints an isolated picture of Princess Diana in the first look photos for Season 5 of Netflix’s period drama “The Crown.”
The upcoming season is expected to follow the Royal Family as they “are presented with possibly their biggest challenge to date, as the public openly question their role in ‘90s Britain,” per the streamer. Part of that, presumably, will be Princess Diana’s separation from Prince Charles and her post-Royal life leading up to her death in 1997.
In one of the photos, which you can see above, Debicki leaves a crowded event with a somber look on her face. Surrounded by people, she still seems very alone.
“That’s the amazing thing about playing these people at this time, because in the journey of ‘The Crown’ so far out of all the seasons, this is the most visual content we have of the Royal Family,” Debicki said in a statement. “In the ‘90s everything had started to be filmed and also it was the birth of the 24-hour news cycle so there’s just this incredible amount of content that we have access to. Diana was the most photographed person in the world at that time. As an actor you open the portal and this huge tsunami of information comes at you. I happily swam around in it.”
Meanwhile, another photo below shows Dominic West as Prince Charles and Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker-Bowles getting friendly at a party, holding hands and smiling at each other.
In a statement of his own, West said: “I think people understand, because the cast has changed every two seasons, that this is not an imitation. This is an evoking of a character. That’s really where the show lives: in the imagined conversations of their private life, which is something that no one knows. I think that’s what it gets a lot of criticism for. How can you know what they talk about in their private lives? The obvious answer is we don’t, but we have an incredible writer, a dramatist, who imagines based on exhaustive research, and that’s really part of the fascination of the show.”
“One of the great things about ‘The Crown; is we get to see those sort of imagined intimate moments, which maybe give us a better perspective on someone that we’ve judged,” Williams added. “Charles and Camilla seem to have a very healthy sense of humor about what at times must be an unbearable predicament. And that is the thing that I most want to show.”
The rest of the images, which you can see below, give a glimpse at Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, and Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major.
“The Crown” Season 5 debuts on Netflix Nov. 9 with 10 episodes. Peter Morgan directs and executive produces alongside Suzanne Mackie, Andy Harries, Stephen Daldry, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert Fox, and Jessica Hobbs.
