Final Season of ‘The Crown’ Will Cover Diana’s Death, Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee. TBD on Andrew and Epstein

Queen Elizabeth II and the Windsors will return for one last go-around in the loosely fictionalized ringer, with the sixth and final season of The Crown premiering next month on Netflix. 

The show’s final 10 episodes will be split into two parts. Part one will largely take place in 1997, with four episodes centered around Princess Diana’s relationship with Dodi Fayed and the fatal car crash that killed them both in August of that year. Part two, comprising six episodes, will follow the reverberations of this tragedy up through 2005, with major events including Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, Prince William’s budding relationship with Kate Middleton, and the culmination of the greatest romance ever told — Prince Charles’ 2005 marriage to his one true love, Camilla Parker-Bowles. 

To tease the new season, Netflix shared a short trailer featuring the various Elizabeths throughout the series, reflecting on the duties and personal sublimation the monarchy requires. “The crown is a symbol of permanence, it’s something you are, not what you do,” says Claire Foy’s Elizabeth. “Some portion of our natural selves is always lost, we have all made sacrifices — it is not a choice, it is a duty,” follows Olivia Colman. And finally, Imelda Staunton wonders, “But what about the life I put aside? The woman I put aside?”

Along with Staunton, Season Six of The Crown will star Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Khalid Abdalla as Dodi, Olivia Williams as Camilla, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne, Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair, and Salim Daw as Mohamed Al Fayed. In part one, Princes William and Harry will be played by Rufus Kappa and Fflyn Edwards; in part two, the roles will be taken over by Ed McVey and Luther Ford, with Meg Bellamy joining as Kate Middleton. 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), The Crown won’t continue long enough to get into the recent craziness involving Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. But it will be interesting to see if, or how, the show addresses another royal scandal that definitely does fall into this final timeline: Prince Andrew and his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew first met Epstein around 1999 (though some accounts suggest they knew each other before that), and in 2001, Epstein allegedly trafficked then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre to Andrew for sex. Giuffre accused Andrew of raping her in a lawsuit that was settled out of court last year. Andrew has long denied Giuffre’s allegations, though as part of the settlement, he did acknowledge that Epstein “trafficked countless young girls” and said that he “regrets his association with Epstein.”

From Rolling Stone US.