“The Crown” is easily one of the
most-watched exclusive series on Netflix, with many viewers tuning in to stream
episodes in the lives of Queen Elizabeth II and the British Royal Family from
shortly before her reign to…probably up to the present if it keeps getting
renewed. Its third season is getting close to release while season 4 is already
assembling is cast. One idle question of “The Crown” audiences is whether or
not the real-life Royal House of Windsor watches the series. As the show-runner
reveals, not only do they watch, and that the Queen is (somewhat) a fan, but
they also have the privilege of getting season spoilers.
Normally people who spoil plot
developments is hot and heavily watched series get negative reactions from the
show fandom, but as Vogue Australia tells
it Peter Morgan, who created and is principal writer of “The Crown,” his taking
steps to inform the Royal Family of the UK in advance what will happen in an
upcoming season is a matter of utmost courtesy. Four times in a year, he says,
he confers with officials of Buckingham Palace to update the Royals of plot
happenings. Morgan describes it: “Respectfully, I tell them what I have in mind
and they brace themselves slightly.”
Morgan does his advance spoilers
to the House of Windsor because, among several reasons, they are fans of “The
Crown.” A Buckingham Palace inside source notes that the Royals on several
occasions have done binge-watching of the show during weekends at Windsor
Castle, because apparently the Royal Couple have their own personal Netflix
account. Queen Elizabeth II reportedly liked the plot progression, though she
feels some events have been overly dramatized and in particular, she was upset
at a depiction of her husband Prince Philip acting coldly to news that their then-young
son Prince Charles was being bullied at school.
It is a fair criticism, as the
Queen is rightly worried that the dramatizations done on their family history
in “The Crown” stands a chance of being accepted by other viewers as accurate
gospel on their dynamics. But Peter Morgan, who based “The Crown” on 2006 film “The
Queen” and 2013 stage play “The Audience” (both of which he had written),
remarks that he makes it a point to never satirize the Royals and to ensure
that they are portrayed with dignity onscreen. “The wheels on this show want it
to do satire, which is what we love doing with our political leaders and
royals,” Morgan notes. “I’m constantly trying to steer it in the other
direction, towards something heroic.”
“The Crown” season 3 premieres on
Netflix this November 17.
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