Filming of the fifth season of The Crown is underway — with an early look at Imelda Staunton in her new role as Queen Elizabeth II. Here’s what you need to know.

Filming of the fifth season of The Crown is underway — with an early look at Imelda Staunton in her new role as Queen Elizabeth II.

The actor is taking over the role from Olivia Colman, as the fifth season of the award-winning Netflix show reveals the new casting. The cast have been pictured filming onboard a royal boat in Macduff, Scotland.

While a lot of the details have been kept under wraps, there are a few things you can expect from the upcoming series.

Imelda taking over from Olivia to play Queen Elizabeth II is big news — even for her.

In a statement posted on Twitter when her casting was first announced, the award-winner said she felt “honoured” to take over the role and bring the series to its conclusion.

“I have loved watching The Crown from the very start,” she said. “As an actor it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts.”

Alongside Imelda joining the cast for season five are Lesley Manville, who will play Princess Margaret, Jonathan Pryce, who will take over the role of Prince Philip from Tobias Menzies; Dominic West, who will play Prince Charles and Jonny Lee Miller, who will play John Major — now that, we can’t wait to see!

Elizabeth Debicki has also been confirmed to be taking over the role of Princess Diana from Emma Corrin, but that doesn’t definitely mean we’ll be waving goodbye to the latter for good. There have been rumours the producers may bring Emma back into the fold for flashback scenes, after her award-winning performance as Diana.

What will the new season be about?

We used to think The Crown season five would be the show’s last season. However, now we know the show’s team are working on a season six, which will take the story up to the early 2000s.

It’s possible that season five could either end on Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ divorce (finalised in 1996), or with Princess Diana’s death in 1997, leaving the fallout from the tragedy to be explored in season six.

Other events which are likely to be included are the events of 1992, which the Queen famously described as her “annus horribilis”.

Not only did this year mark the start of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ separation and the publication of the book Diana: Her True Story, but it also saw the separation of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the finalisation of Princess Anne’s divorce from Mark Phillips and a fire at Windsor Castle .

When will the new series of The Crown arrive on Netflix?

Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we can look at the pattern between previous seasons to know when it could arrive.

When the cast last changed (between seasons two and three), the wait was two years. Season four’s release was at the end of 2020, and season five did not started filming until recently. So it’s likely we won’t see anything hit our screens until 2022.

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