The Crown May Pause Production Out Of Respect For Queen Elizabeth II

In the biggest Hollywood-related setback concerning the royal family since the Queen joined Paddington Bear for a disastrous lunch over tea and marmalade sandwiches, it would appear that Queen Elizabeth II's passing earlier today will also have an effect on filming of the popular Netflix series, "The Crown."

While the world at large is still struggling to come to terms with the major news, the entertainment industry will also feel the effects. Fans of the hit series will inevitably see "The Crown" impacted to a certain extent — though with exact timeline still to be decided. Deadline reports that "The Crown" creator, showrunner, and writer Peter Morgan has indicated that production on the sixth and final season of "The Crown" may be suspended indefinitely. As he put it:

"'The Crown' is a love letter to her and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. I expect we will stop filming out of respect too."

Netflix hasn't yet made any official announcements on the matter, but should this understandable decision come to pass, viewers likely won't even notice any sort of delay for when season 6 will eventually be made available. Notably, season 5 is still set to debut sometime in November of 2022, giving the creative team plenty of wiggle room to pick up filming on the final season once again after the appropriate time of mourning has passed.

The news of Queen Elizabeth II's passing will surely result in a surreal experience for the latest actor cast to portray the monarch. Imelda Staunton is the latest actor to be added to the production in the role of the aged-up royal, stepping into the same role as previous stars Olivia Colman and Claire Foy before her. Staunton will be joined in season 5 and 6 by Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles, and Jonny Lee Miller as Prime Minister John Major. Most recently, we found out that a pair of actors would be recruited to portray two versions of Prince William (actors Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey, respectively) along with Meg Bellamy as Kate Middleton in season 6. The search for an actor to embody Prince Harry is still ongoing.

To nobody's surprise, the powerful royal family exerts plenty of influence on the Netflix series, as we previously reported here. The decision to temporarily shut down production on season 6 is a common sense one, though it's worth noting that Buckingham Palace is routinely kept in the loop regarding plot details (even though, you know, this is all based on real historical events). In any case, Deadline also reports that the Queen's death didn't exactly come as a surprise as the production long anticipated such an eventuality and prepared accordingly. Look for Netflix to officially weigh in at some point in the near future.

Season 5 of "The Crown" will air on Netflix on a to-be-announced date in November of 2022.