Why Season Five Of The Crown Will Be Like No Other

The historical drama "The Crown," which details the trials and tribulations of the British royal family, has proven to be a massive global hit for streaming giant Netflix. The series, which is currently four seasons strong, has garnered a whopping 90% average rating on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 

Season 4 introduced a young Princess Diana, as portrayed by talented newcomer Emma Corrin ("The real star of this fourth season is, inevitably, Diana," noted The Telegraph), as well as Gillian Anderson as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 

Now, with a slated time jump and a swerve to focus the narrative more firmly on the People's Princess, anticipation is high for Season 5 of "The Crown," premiering in 2022. As Metro enthused, "We can't wait to see what they have in store next." Per Vogue, the first photos of Aussie actor Elizabeth Debicki in costume as Diana — wearing her legendary "revenge dress," no less — were hugely tantalizing. 

Reportedly, a lot of care and attention to detail is going into making this Diana-focused season the most compelling yet. But it's already courting controversy.

According to The Telegraph, the upcoming season of "The Crown" could be its most controversial yet. Commentator Harry Mount argued that Season 5 is almost guaranteed to cause trouble "as the events it covers get closer to the present day. Those events include the divorce of Charles and Diana and the death of Diana in a car crash in Paris." 

Mount pointed out that the issue with covering more recent events is that a lot of the people either directly involved, or close to those who were, are still alive. They could, therefore, "potentially object to the kind of factual errors and 'poetic license' that have littered" the previous seasons of the hit show, he said. 

It's worth noting that Season 5 is already making headlines. Princess Diana's longtime friend Jemima Khan recently pulled out of the show over concerns about doing her legacy justice. Khan was brought in as a consultant and writer on "The Crown" by creator Peter Morgan. "It was really important to me that the final years of my friend's life be portrayed accurately and with compassion, as has not always happened in the past," she told The Times. 

Khan had been working on the show with Morgan since 2019 but said that she ultimately exited and gave up all credit "when our cowriting agreement was not honored, and when I realized that particular story line would not necessarily be told as respectfully or compassionately as I had hoped."