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Louise Thomas
Editor
The Crown may have come to an end after six seasons – but its creator Peter Morgan has hinted that it won’t be the last time that he writes about the royal family.
The Netflix show chronicled the first five decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, beginning with her coronation in 1953 and ending with the wedding of her son Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.
Claire Foy portrayed the monarch for the first two seasons of the acclaimed drama, with Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton taking on the role as the series progressed.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan, 61, said that he is not yet “done with” the royals, but explained that he is unlikely to “go further into the present” to dramatise any of the family’s more recent scandals.
“For the time being, I cannot imagine any circumstances in which I’d want to go further into the present, as it were, but at the same time, I don’t think I’m done with the subject,” the Emmy winner said.
Instead, Morgan suggested that he might find some way of coming into [the subject] from a different way”, possibly by telling a story from the past that relates to our present moment.
“If you go back in time, you always have that wonderful opportunity for metaphor,” he said.
“You can find a story in the past and tell that, and it [will] actually be a story about the present, but in camouflage. And that, I think, might be a more elegant way forward. To move forward from where I left the show off at the moment feels too soon.”
The Crown was not the first time that Morgan had been inspired by the Windsors. The screenwriter was previously nominated for a Bafta and an Oscar for his 2006 film The Queen, which saw Helen Mirren play the monarch in the days following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
His 2013 play The Audience, which also initially starred Mirren, dramatised meetings between the Queen and various prime ministers throughout her reign.
Morgan previously teased vague plans for a prequel series, telling Variety: “I do have an idea. But first, I need to do some other things. Second, it would need a unique set of circumstances to come together.”
