Why Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Won't Be Covered on The Crown
If, when watching Oprah Winfrey’s illuminating interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, you grew curious to watch the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s story unfold on The Crown, prepare to be royally disappointed.
Because while Season 4 of the award-winning Netflix series covered the Princess Diana era of the 1980s, and Season 5 is expected to dramatize Charles and Diana’s 1996 divorce and Di’s tragic death in 1997, there are and never have been plans to get to Harry and Meghan’s courtship, marriage and controversial “Megxit.”
As The Crown creator Peter Morgan explained to The Hollywood Reporter back in December, “I just think you get so much more interesting [with the passage of time],” adding: “I’m much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago.”
“Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey, and I don’t know what their journey is or how it will end,” Morgan said. “I sort of have in my head a 20-year rule. That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance. Often things that appear absolutely wildly important today are instantly forgotten, and other things have a habit of sticking around and proving to be historically very relevant and long-lasting.”
As such, despite having two seasons to go (Season 5 isn’t expected to arrive until 2022), “I don’t know where in the scheme of things Prince Andrew, or indeed Meghan Markle or Harry, will ever appear,” Morgan reiterated. “I don’t want to write about them because to write about them [so soon] would instantly make it journalistic, and there are plenty of journalists already writing about them.”
Among The Crown‘s upcoming cast changes/additions, Dominic West (The Affair) has signed on to play Prince Charles starting with Season 5, at which time Elizabeth Debicki (Tenet) will succeed Golden Globe-winner Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. Additionally, Game of Thrones veteran Jonathan Pryce will play Prince Philip to Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth.
