The Crown: How Will Season 5 Deal With Diana's Death?
The Crown season 5's biggest narrative point will be the inevitable death of Princess Diana, but how will the show handle such a tricky subject?
Princess Diana's (Emma Corrin) inevitable death will be a focal point for The Crown season 5 — but how will the Netflix series tackle such a sensitive subject? The British drama based on the life of the Royal Family finally introduces the Princess of Wales in its fourth season. With that comes Diana's tumultuous married life to Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) which ended in an ugly divorce in 1996.
The events of The Crown season 4 take place between 1979 and 1990, covering the beginning of the doomed marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. It tackled their first meeting, haphazard engagement, and everything that led to the "fairytale" wedding — although the show opted not to recreate the ceremony itself. From there, The Crown continued to delve into their tragic life as a married couple with Charles continuously committing adultery with Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell), while Diana struggled to cope with the life she was saddled with. What made things worse was the Royal Family's approach to the predicament, with Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) insisting they keep it together despite how obviously irreparable their relationship was.
At the end of The Crown season 4, Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) makes a case for Diana to stay in the marriage with Charles as the Royal Family spends Christmas together. She chooses to follow her father-in-law's advice, eventually dressing up and joining the rest of the clan for the holiday celebrations. But despite her decision, it's clear that Diana is far from being happy. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse for her come The Crown season 5.
Each season of The Crown covers around a decade of events of the Royal Family's history starting in 1947 with the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. With that, the show will more likely stick with the same format come season 5, with the series potentially tackling the '90s, which had been famously tumultuous for Windsors. While there are other noteworthy crises from the said decade, including the burning of the Windsor Castle, it's safe to say that the crumbling marriage of Charles and Diana will be a focal point leading to the Princess of Wales' tragic death in 1997. It's arguably one of the most critical points in Queen Elizabeth II's reign as it put her and the rest of the Royal Family under blast for their handling of the matter; it also reignited criticisms over their treatment of Diana over the years. Aside from the immediate implications of the Princess of Wales' demise, it threatened Charles' claim as the King-in-waiting, as well, with the public's perception of him hitting an all-time low.
The Crown may have reserved dealing with Diana's death until season 5, but season 4 laid the foundation for it. Since she started spending time with Charles and news broke out that there's a possibility that she could be the future Queen of the United Kingdom, the press continued to follow her every move. Interest in her significantly increased following her and Charles' Royal Tour to Australia in 1983 where she was fully embraced by the country. In real life, this led to outlets being even more curious about her — and potentially being invasive about her private life — knowing that stories about her always sold. Even after her split with Charles, Diana continued to be hounded by the media, which played a pivotal part in her untimely demise in 1997.
While everyone is still waiting as to how The Crown season 5 will tackle this sensitive issue, it may have dropped hint at the narrative route that they're going for. The season 4 finale featured a tense conversation between Diana and Prince Philip wherein the Duke of Edinburgh warned his daughter-in-law that insisting on getting out of her marriage to Charles would not be a wise course of action. Diana quickly noted the subtle threat in Philip's words, calling him out on it. This lends credence to a specific conspiracy theory positing that the Royal Family has something to do with her accident.
More than two decades since that fateful night in Paris, Princess Diana's death remains to be a controversial topic due to some unclear specifics regarding the crash that claimed her life. Between that and ominous words from Diana herself, the tragedy is a favorite point of discussion for conspiracy theorists who are attempting to make sense of how exactly the accident happened. Some ideas that have circulated over the years are so outlandish that most people immediately dismiss them — like Diana faking her own death to live a quiet life away from the spotlight. Then again, there are a couple of theories that have garnered a following due to their perceived plausibility.
When talking about prominent conspiracy theories about how Diana died, among the most popular ones is that the MI6 was behind the crash. Followers of this concept chalk it up to a number of coincidences that would supposedly help the British Secret Service to make a clean hit on Diana — such as the busted cameras in that particular road segment that make it difficult to ascertain what really happened when the Princess' car entered the tunnel. Sometimes, this idea is taken one step further by involving the Royal Family in the accident. Over the years, Diana's repeated words about how her former family-in-law will ultimately cause her death fueled this idea — something that was hinted at in The Crown season 4 finale — especially since she was apparently set to become engaged with her Muslim boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the crash.
Regardless of what really happened the night Princess Diana died, it's clear that the public still has unresolved issues about it. If anything, her death remains relevant now more than ever, with the media's treatment of her and the Windsors' lackluster effort to do anything about it drawing comparisons to Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex's current experience. As a dramatization of the Royal Family's life, The Crown needs to pick a side as to whether or not they're actually involved in the accident. That way, the Netflix show provides the closure that everyone can get from the series, but more likely not in the real world. That's the only way that The Crown can move forward with its sixth and final season without being continuously haunted by the death of Diana.
That being said, it's also important to emphasize that while the story of The Crown is based on real-life events, creator Peter Morgan and Netflix have taken creative liberties to make it palatable for the general viewing public. So, it should be noted that not everything that's told in the show definitively happened in real life.