A Sumptuous Prequel to ‘The Crown’ May Be On the Horizon
We’re still months away from the penultimate season of The Crown finally hitting Netflix, but showrunner Peter Morgan is already plotting a spin-off of the Emmy-winning drama. On April 8, Variety confirmed that Left Bank, the production company responsible for bringing the Windsors’ world to life, is currently discussing a prequel with the streaming giant that would chart the lives of the Queen’s ancestors from 1901 to 1947.
Specifically, the yet-to-be-titled drama would open with the passing of Queen Victoria—Queen Elizabeth II’s great-great-grandmother—and run through to the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten in 1947, whose nuptials opened the first season of The Crown. Rather than centering on the evolution of a single, female monarch over 70 years, then, the spin-off would take in the comparatively brief reigns of four male sovereigns: Edward VII (1901-10), George V (1910-36), Edward VIII (1936), and George VI (1936-52).
While it will be intriguing to see The Crown’s genius costume team reinterpret the fashions of the Edwardian period and the Roaring Twenties, it’s Edward VIII’s tumultuous, controversial romance with Wallace Simpson that feels most worthy of the Netflix treatment, along with George VI’s surprising role as a national leader during World War II following his brother’s abdication.
Netflix has yet to officially green-light the drama, but it seems highly likely that it will look to expand The Crown universe given the series’s wild popularity. Nearly 30 million people tuned in to watch Emma Corrin’s turn as Diana, Princess of Wales in the most recent season’s first week on Netflix alone, and Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of the late royal’s final years in the spotlight will no doubt attract millions more. Already counting down until season five drops in November? Keep yourself entertained in the meantime by whipping through one of the greatest royal biographies ever published.
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