Netflix is ‘making a prequel to The Crown’ – but I’m sceptical

Netflix is reportedly making a prequel of the megahit The Crown, which will span from Queen Victoria’s death to Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding.

However, I’m worried it won’t work.

The Crown creator Peter Morgan has hinted at the idea of a prequel for a long time now, so it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s looking set to actually go ahead.

This new spin-off will cover the first half of the 20th century, following the reigns of Edward VII (1901–1910), George V (1910–1936), Edward VIII (1936) and George VI (1936–1952).

A TV insider said about the reportedly £500m deal: ‘Netflix has been locked in negotiations with the company for quite a long time about this spin-off series, but they’ve recently finally managed to seal the deal and come to an agreement,’ according to the Daily Mail.

Of course, the show is following in the footsteps of a TV giant. It was revealed in 2020 that a total of 73 million households worldwide had watched The Crown since it began.

Beyond that, the historical drama secured a whopping 24 Emmys during its six-season run, which started in 2016 and ended in 2023, and has become the definitive guide on the modern royal family.

I myself was an avid fan and have watched every episode. Yet, I can’t help but feel sceptical about this prequel idea.

First of all, there are already several iconic TV shows set in the first half of the 20th century which explore aristocracy and class dynamics – most notably, TV juggernauts Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders.

This era of history, which includes the First and Second World Wars, is well-trodden in media in a way that the second half of the 20th century perhaps hasn’t been.

(That’s not to say we can’t create more shows about this era, I just worry about fatigue).

Moreover, by far and away the most well-known historic event to grip the monarchy during this era was King Edward VIII’s abdication, which has already been explored in The Crown.

Perhaps we don’t get a play-by-play, but through flashbacks and direct testimony from the exiled Edward VIII himself, we get a pretty comprehensive picture of how it all went down.

What made The Crown so compelling was how recent it felt. It almost seemed daring to make such a substantial drama about some characters who were still alive.

It made bold swings, such as the episode in which we see Queen Elizabeth II dote on Prince Andrew, right when the modern-day Epstein scandal was breaking about him.

And we saw the implosion of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage in the context of Prince Harry and Meghan’s ongoing troubles with the royal family.

The show’s cultural impact was only heightened when Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, weeks before the fifth season landed. The stars aligned to make the show feel consistently timely and relevant in a way any prequel series would struggle to recreate.

Despite my scepticism, there is still potential, and I’ll certainly be giving it a go. The monarchy is currently in a precarious position, and I would be convinced by a prequel series that doesn’t hold back in unmasking the ugly truths about the institution.

Granted, those early reigns of Edward VII and George V are seldom explored in pop culture, so there’s plenty of scope for unaired juicy storylines – especially given the politically volatile time it’s covering.

Fans, for the most part, have already been won over by the idea.

‘If this turns out to be as good as the first 2-3 seasons of The Crown, I’ll watch the hell out of it,’ editorwilling6143 wrote on Reddit.

‘This news made my day,’ dothistangle shared, while front-newspaper87 commented: ‘This is awesome! A lot of plot to cover and most of it will be new to a lot of people!’

‘This is exciting! The early seasons of The Crown were great at delving into history and politics, which I feel were sadly missing from the later seasons. This is going to cover some interesting historical territory,’ AlternativeBeing181 reflected.

‘Starting when Queen Victoria dies instead of focusing on her reign has me foaming at the mouth for this,’ ogjearbear said, as Nikolaj added: ‘Tbh that’s a really interesting period for the British monarchy, and one comparably talked about less.’

As for why it seems Peter has chosen to wind the clock back, he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024 that he ‘cannot imagine any circumstances in which I’d want to go further into the present’ but that he wasn’t ‘done with the subject’.

He continued: ‘I might find some way of coming into it from a different way. If you go back in time, you always have that wonderful opportunity for metaphor.

‘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.’

It is understood that the prequel is currently being written, with casting expected to take place next year.

The Crown is available to stream on Netflix now.

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