“The Crown” screenwriter Peter Morgan: Death of Queen Elizabeth changed the series

“The Crown” screenwriter Peter Morgan
Death of Queen Elizabeth changed the series

In a few weeks, the successful Netflix series “The Crown” will enter its final round. This time the series will be published in two parts: Part one, which can be seen on the streaming service from November 16th, is largely about Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki, 33) and the last months of her life.

Part two (from December 14th on Netflix) focuses more on Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton, 67) and Prince Charles (Dominic West, 54), including his wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles (Olivia Williams, 55). be. Prince William and Prince Harry are also more in the spotlight as growing teenagers. William is portrayed by Rufus Kampa (17) in part one and by Ed McVey (23) in part two, Harry by Fflyn Edwards (14) and later by Luther Ford (23).

“The Crown” almost didn’t tell Princess Diana’s story

The series and its creators are repeatedly criticized for the way they portray certain events. Recently there was an uproar a report from the Daily Mail, according to which the late Diana appears as a ghost to her ex-husband, Prince Charles, and her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, in the upcoming season. The British newspaper therefore described the series as “cruel”, “absurd” and “a sick joke” and once again accused screenwriter Peter Morgan (60) of deviating from the truth.

He is now asking in an interview with the industry magazine “Variety”.: “I never thought of it as Diana’s ‘spirit’ in the traditional sense. It was about her living on vividly in the minds of those she left behind. Diana was unique, and I suppose that’s what inspired me to do it “To find a unique way to represent her. She deserves special narrative treatment.”

Morgan also admits that he was afraid to bring Princess Diana into the series. He even considered avoiding her story altogether. The first part of the final season deals with the events leading up to the car accident in a Paris tunnel in which Diana died in 1997. For months there has been speculation about whether the series will show the dramatic scenes or not. “Oh God, we never wanted to show the accident,” says Morgan. “Never.”

After the Queen’s death, the script was rewritten again

The death of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) also changed the series again. When the monarch died in September 2022, Morgan had almost finished the script for the final season. Although the series ends in 2005, Morgan wanted to find a way to deal with her death and rewrote the script again. “We’ve all been through the experience of her funeral, so I had to try to find a way for the final episode to deal with the character’s death even though she hadn’t died yet,” Morgan said.

Peter Morgan hasn’t read Prince Harry’s book

Noticeably absent from the final season is Prince Andrew (63), whose friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019) developed around the turn of the millennium. “I didn’t approach him,” admits Peter Morgan. He always focused on the direct succession to the throne: Elizabeth, Charles, William. “I dramatized Harry a little, but mostly his relationship with William.”

However, he was not inspired by Prince Harry’s memoirs, “Spare” (in German: “Reserve”), which was published in January 2023. “I haven’t read a word of it,” Morgan says. “It’s not that I wasn’t interested. But I didn’t want his voice to shape my thinking too much. I have a lot of sympathy for him, a lot of sympathy. But I didn’t want to read his book.”

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