It's official: 'The Crown' is getting a new season

A release date has not yet been announced for the fourth season, which will again feature Colman as the queen, and revisit her reign through Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and Prince Charles’ relationship with Princess Diana. Colman will then pass the crown to Imelda Staunton for the fifth season.

The streaming service announced last week that in the fifth installment Lesley Manville would take over the role of Princess Margaret, who was played in the first two seasons by Vanessa Kirby, and by Helena Bonham Carter in the third and fourth.

“We can’t wait for audiences to see the upcoming fourth season,” said Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, “and we’re proud to support Peter’s vision and the phenomenal cast and crew for a sixth and final season.”

She said in a statement that the show was “raising the bar” for each new season.

With its high-profile cast, precise period detail and gilded settings, “The Crown” has also drawn steep bills. It has cost Netflix nearly $150 million, about twice as much as the royal family costs British tax payers each year.

Morgan compared the production process to making a movie, as opposed to a serialized drama. Before the pandemic, a team of researchers convened at Morgan’s home once a week, helping weave together story lines for script meetings with documents, transcripts and press clippings they had collected.

There is an expectation to “deliver TV on an annual basis,” he said. “But what we’re making now is feature-film-quality stuff, and no one ever expected you to make 10 feature films a year — because you’d die.”