“The Crown” is by far one of the most successful, and popular Netflix original series, that was ever aired on the platform.
“The Crown” has gained a lot of popularity, and is considered one of the masterpieces, that Netflix has on its platform. This is why we are about to find out more about the series, that people love so much.
- The Crown is a historical drama television series.
- It is about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
- It is created and principally written by Peter Morgan, and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix.
- So, “The Crown” is considered a Netflix Original series.
- It grew out of Morgan’s film The Queen (2006) and his stage play The Audience (2013), and is credited as based on the latter.
- The first season covers the period from Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’s marriage in 1947 to the disintegration of her sister Princess Margaret’s engagement to Group Captain Peter Townsend in 1955.
- The second season covers the period from the Suez Crisis in 1956 to the retirement of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963 and the birth of Prince Edward in 1964.
- The third season spans the period between 1964 and 1977, including Harold Wilson’s two periods as prime minister, and introduces Camilla Shand.
- The fourth will span from 1977 to 1990 and will include Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and introduce Lady Diana Spencer.
- The fifth and sixth seasons, which will close the series, will cover the Queen’s reign into the 21st century.
- The 4th season will premier on Netflix on November 15 2020.
- New actors are being cast every two seasons, due to the change of ages, and the fact that political figues in history change.
- Claire Foy portrays the Queen in the first two seasons, alongside Matt Smith as Prince Philip and Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret.
- For the third and fourth seasons, Olivia Colman takes over as the Queen, Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.
- Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, and Lesley Manville will succeed Colman, Menzies, and Bonham Carter, respectively, for the final two seasons.
- Filming for the series takes place at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
- The location shooting took place throughout the United Kingdom and internationally
- . The first season was released on Netflix on November 4, 2016.
- The second on December 8, 2017.
- The third on November 17, 2019.
- The fifth season is anticipated in 2022.
- The series is one of the most expensive television series ever made.
- Each episode is budgeted at £5 million.
- Also, it had already been commissioned for two seasons, with the intention of four more, before the first episode had even been completed, or any episode broadcast.
- Coincidentally Helena Bonham Carter’s uncle, Mark Bonham-Carter, briefly dated Princess Margaret, the very character Helena portrays in Season 3 of the series.
- The iconic black door of 10 Downing Street had to be made larger in scale so that John Lithgow, who is 6′ 4” in height, would not look significantly larger than the real-life Sir Winston Churchill, who, at this stage was around 5′ 6” tall.
- Queen Elizabeth II has blue eyes, like her first portrayer Claire Foy.
- After Olivia Colman was cast as Elizabeth she was tested with blue contact lenses over her brown eyes, but it was decided they negatively affected her performance.
- Changing her eye color in postproduction was also tested, but according to the producers “it didn’t feel like her.”
- Eventually it was decided to accept the continuity error.
- This show is Netflix’s second most expensive project, budgeted at approximately £100 million. The first one was The Get Down (2016), which cost around £120 million.
- Helen Mirren, who portrayed Elizabeth in The Queen (2006), dismissed speculation that she would succeed Olivia Colman after the series’ next time jump, stating “I think it’s more interesting when you see other portraits and it builds into a more interesting picture than just someone coming back”.
- Originally, creator Peter Morgan envisaged the series as being sixty episodes in total over six seasons.
- The first season depicting events up to 1955, but as production was wrapping on season 4 on January 2020, he announced his intention to conclude the series with season 5.
- However, in July 2020, Morgan announced that it would be in the end the predicted six seasons, because he needed more episodes to convey the story he wanted to.
- John Lithgow (Sir Winston Churchill) is the only American actor playing a British character in the series.
- Claire Foy is four years older than Vanessa Kirby in real life.
- This is the same age difference between their real-life characters Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.
- In mid 2017, the British tabloids reported that Queen Elizabeth II had watched the series on the insistence of her son Prince Edward, and reportedly “really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized.
- Claire Foy later stated she was skeptical of the rumors.
- During Elizabeth’s 2017 Christmas address, she referenced and included a clip of her first televised address, an event recently depicted in The Crown: Marionettes (2017).
- Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret) doesn’t smoke in real life. So during production, she had to smoke herbal cigarettes.
- Claire Foy was breast-feeding her newborn infant during production of the first season.
- When she first read the script, she was already five months pregnant and, as such, never dreamed she’d have a chance of landing a leading role.
- Alex Jennings plays the abdicated Duke of Windsor. Jennings previously starred as another royal family member, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, in The Queen (2006).
- Both projects were written by Peter Morgan.
- Jennings is now renowned for playing royals. He also portrayed King George III in Liberty! The American Revolution (1997), and King Leopold I of Belgium (whose wife Princess Charlotte of Wales died before she could become Queen of the United Kingdom) in Victoria(2016).
- Due to rights issues, the show could not use the real photographs taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones.
- This is why the photographer Julian Broad was asked to create images in the spirit of Armstrong-Jones’ work to be shown in some scenes, such as the exhibition opening.
- Broad had previously worked as an assistant to the real Armstrong-Jones for two years during the 1980s.
- Despite her probed talent, when Gillian Anderson was cast to play Margaret Thatcher, many fans argued that she was too sexy for the part.
- The coronation dress worn is a replica that was originally commissioned and made by Harrods for a celebratory window display in 2012 for the Queen’s jubilee.
- The dress was made and is owned by Angels Costumes who they hired many of the costumes for for the series.
- Despite being made to a mannequin size, Claire Foy fit the dress perfectly and was the first person to ever wear it.
- In an early reading of the series in 2014, Queen Elizabeth II was played by Felicity Jones.
- Olivia Colman, who took over the role as Queen Elizabeth II in season three from Claire Foy, played an earlier Queen for which she won an Oscar, Queen Anne, in The Favourite (2018) with Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.
- It is rumoured that Imelda Staunton will replace Olivia Colman as Elizabeth II in the 5th series of the show.
- The Crown won 3 Golden Globes,
- It also had another 65 wins & 174 nominations.
- In general, The Crown was praised for its writing, acting, directing, cinematography, production values, and relatively accurate historical account of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
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