Season 5 of “The Crown” has yet to be released, but it has already received backlash from British leadership deeming it “fictitious,” reports the New York Post.
The Netflix series follows the life of Queen Elizabeth II from the early days of her reign to modern times. This is not the first film interpretation of the events that go on behind Buckingham Palace’s closed doors.
“Spencer,” which depicts Princess Diana’s battle with bulimia and divorce from Charles, earned Kirsten Stewart an Oscar nomination earlier this year. The 2006 film “The Queen” chronicled key events of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.
Depictions of the royal family’s private experiences are left to mostly speculation with a bit of history. The royal family is notoriously private about personal matters, so the public only knows a fraction of the scandals that the media gets wind about, according to The Washington Post.
“We have always presented ‘The Crown’ as a drama — and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events,” Netflix said in a statement, per US Weekly.
Unlike previous seasons, the fifth season of the series received enough backlash to earn a logline which reminds viewers the series is a “fictional dramatization” that is “inspired by true events.”
In the wake of Elizabeth’s recent death and the beginning of the reign of King Charles III, the fifth season of the series comes at a particularly sensitive time for the royal family. Could the fictional depictions pour salt in the wound?
What is Season 5 of ‘The Crown’ about?
The fifth season begins in the 1990s, as then-Prince Charles’ and Princess Diana’s marriage is quickly crumbling. It premieres Nov. 9.
This season will cover the year 1992, which the queen notably called “annus horribilis,” or “horrible year.” It is the year Diana and Charles officially separated.
Backlash from British leadership
Former British Prime Minister John Major criticized “The Crown” last month, with a statement from his office calling the series “damaging and malicious fiction” and “a barrel-load of nonsense,” according to The Daily Mail.
Major served as Great Britain’s Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, and will be portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller in season five, reports the the New York Post.
Dame Judi Dench shared her opinion of the series in a letter to the London Times in October. Dench called the series “cruel” and asked Netflix to add a disclaimer that the series is a fictional drama, which has since been added to the series. Dench fears that viewers will believe the series is historically accurate.
“The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years,” Dench said, according to the London Times.
David Mellor, who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for National Heritage, also slammed the series in the Daily Mail. Mellor is afraid that viewers will take the show too seriously and that it could damage Charles’ reputation.
“I don’t think that Peter Morgan (creator of ‘The Crown’), who’s a very good writer, needs to resort to obvious trashy fiction in this,” Mellor told the Daily Mail.
In response to the complaints, Netflix defended the series as a dramatic interpretation. “‘The Crown’ has always been presented as a drama based on historical events. Series five is a fictional dramatization, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family,” a spokesperson for Netflix told Variety.
The portrayal of King Charles in ‘The Crown’
Several complaints about Season 5 of “The Crown” were made about the season opener, which depicts a scene with Charles encouraging former prime minister John Major to convince the queen to abdicate.
Mellor and other British leadership insist this event never took place and fear it will make King Charles look bad at the start of his reign.
“He’s done very well since he’s become King and I think it’s a shame if he is tarnished by this. I mean, you could argue the truth is bad enough without the fiction,” Mellor told the Daily Mail.
Mellor also claimed that Major would never have taken part in any conversation like the one portrayed in Season 5, saying the scene is entirely fiction.
“Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence,” Dench told the London Times, “is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.”
The response from creators and stars of ‘The Crown’
Stars of “The Crown” also claim that the series was never meant to be interpreted as history, per CNN.
Jonathan Pryce, who plays the late Prince Philip in Season 5, told Entertainment Weekly that he would never have agreed to play a role in the show if it contained “any hint of disrespect or anything unjust towards the royal family.”
Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Diana in Season 5, reassured fans that she and the rest of the cast are approaching their portrayals of British leadership with respect. “If anybody thinks that we don’t feel a tremendous amount of responsibility, then they would be wrong,” Debicki told The New York Times.
How will ‘The Crown’ handle the Princess Diana crash scene?
Princess Diana died in car accident in 1997 in Paris at the age of 36. Diana’s death will not be covered in “The Crown” Season 5 — instead, the scene will be depicted in Season 6, reports the New York Post.
“We’ve been dreading getting to this point. ... It’s fair to acknowledge that there’s a certain anxiety; a palpable sense of being slightly on edge. I mean, there’s bombshell sensitivity surrounding this one,” a source on the production of “The Crown” told Deadline.
The scene, which has already been filmed, will not show the crash, Deadline reports. Other details have not been revealed to the public.