The Crown is about to tackle Princess Diana’s relationship with Dodi Al Fayed. Ahead of the upcoming Season 6, Netflix has released a handful of new images from the popular royal drama, which features Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Khalid Abdalla as Dodi Fayed.
The images depict some of Diana’s final moments, with one particularly striking shot showing Diana and Dodi together in a car. Debicki said that it was a “unique challenge as an actor” to portray Princess Diana’s final weeks.
Princess Diana and Al Fayed died on August 31, 1997, when their car crashed in a tunnel in Paris while being chased by paparazzi photographers. However, while the show is stepping into highly emotive territory, producers have previously said that it would be handled “delicately”.
“There was a very, very careful, long, long, long conversation about how we do it — and I hope, you know, the audience will judge it in the end, but I think it's been delicately, thoughtfully recreated," said producer Suzanne Mackie, as reported by BBC News.
The upcoming season is written by Peter Morgan who created the show back in 2016. “I really just trusted in Peter's emotional blueprint that he created for us to follow,” said Debicki. “It's his interpretation and I think it made emotional sense to me, so I clung to that. Because, obviously, it's devastating and it's fraught and we can never know.”
Other Season 6 images show Diana aboard the yacht of Dodi’s father, Mohammed Al Fayed, who is played by Salim Daw. The real-life Mohammed Al Fayed died earlier this year, aged 94.
There's also a rather striking glimpse of Debicki as Diana during her visit to an active minefield in Angola where she was famously snapped in anti-landmine gear.
Producers have revealed that the season will see Prince William trying to integrate back into royal life after the death of his mother, as well as explore the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and Prince William’s courtship of Kate Middleton.
Prince Charles will once again be played by Dominic West, with William and Harry played during the first half of the season by Rufus Kampa and Fflyn Edwards. Imelda Staunton will return as Queen Elizabeth II.
“I've been living with her for a long time so, if anything, I felt more comfortable this time,” said Staunton. “I love her stillness and her ability to not be thrown by everything that must have constantly - throughout her whole life - gone on around her."
The Crown concludes with its sixth and final season, which has been split into two parts: the first half of Season 6 will debut on Netflix on November 16.
IGN’s The Crown Season 5 review gave it 9/10 and said: “Set against a backdrop of transition and tension, romance and remorse, The Crown’s fifth season sympathetically explores broken hearts, duty versus desire, and the pursuit for love above all else with the introspection and elegance fans expect from showrunner Peter Morgan, even if the metaphors are laid on rather thick here. The series’ final permanent cast deliver the goods, with the big standouts being Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Salim Daw as Mohamed Al-Fayed, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, and Jonny Lee Miller as John Major.”
Want to read more about The Crown? Check out the royal wedding that features in The Crown Season 6 and get a glimpse at the upcoming season with The Crown Season 6 trailer.
Image credits: Netflix
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/the-crown-teases-diana-and-dodi-storyline-for-season-6