The Crown season 5 will be the final season, Imelda Staunton will star as the Queen

The Crown is ending after season 5, and Imelda Staunton will star as Queen Elizabeth II in the final season of the Netflix original series.

We have some good news and some bad news to share with fans of The Crown. Let’s go with the good news first!

According to a report from Deadline, Imelda Staunton has been cast as Queen Elizabeth II for The Crown season 5. She will take over the role after Olivia Colman, who took over the role from Claire Foy, exits The Crown after season 4.

Colman just won the Golden Globe for her performance in season 3. Foy also won the Golden Globe during her reign as Queen. Staunton only gets one chance at it, but I’m going to predict that she’ll also win a Golden Globe in a few years!

For those who don’t recall, The Crown season 3 premiered on Netflix in November 2019.

Staunton is best known to the masses as the actress who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies. Staunton’s character was introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 

Netflix announced the news on Twitter:

And, now, the bad news: The Crown will end after season 5, according to the report. Peter Morgan, the creator of the Netflix original series, has been saying for years that the series would run for six seasons. After season 3, Morgan decided it would be best to end the series following the fifth season.

We don’t really know why that decision has been made. The Crown is clearly still one of the best shows on TV. The writing, the acting, the set designs, costumes, and everything else is as good as any other show right now.

As the Deadline report notes, The Crown appears to have seen a decline in viewers for season 3. There was a two-year gap between the second and third season of the show, and it’s possible some fans just lost interest or haven’t got around to watching the third season yet.

The Crown season 4 is likely headed to Netflix next year, and that will be Colman’s final season as the Queen. We don’t know exactly where that season will end or where the fifth season will begin and Staunton will take over. We also don’t know when season 5 will premiere. There was a big gap between seasons 2 and 3, and we can expect a similar gap between season 4 and season 5, especially if there’s another all-new cast for the final season.

The goal, I believe, was to bring the series to the present, but that was with six seasons. Will they spread out those last two or three decades in one season? Will they end the series at a different point, like the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012? We’ll find out soon!

Stay tuned for more news about The Crown and its last two seasons at Netflix!