'The Crown' Season 6 Will Reportedly Bring Back All 3 Elizabeths

The Crown no longer holds the record as the most ambitious series a streaming service has ever greenlit (that title has been taken by Max's declared ten-season sight-unseen Potter series). However, it remains one of the pinnacles of Netflix's early ambitions. Six seasons, three casts, and one still-ruling royal family. The passing of the central monarch, Elizabeth II, just before Season 5's arrival does not diminish the show's scope or aims; one might argue the transfer of power from Elizabeth to Charles made its first draft of the Second Elizabethan Age right on time. With one season to go, the series is rumored to be adding a tribute to her late majesty, featuring all three actors who played her.

Since the show's first casting overhaul between Seasons 2 and 3, it has found ways to bring back the actors from the first cast, most notably Claire Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth in her earliest years on the English throne. Instead of flashing back to scenes from the first two seasons with new actor Olivia Colman in the role or using footage from previous episodes, Foy returned to film new ones, a side benefit of the recasting as the monarch aged. Season 5, which introduced the third and final cast, also brought back Foy for flashbacks of the character now played by Imelda Staunton, though not Colman.

However, this being the show's final season, it seemed a reasonable expectation the series might find a way to work in all three actors in some fashion. According to The Sun (which, while not right on everything, does seem to have an inside track for this production), not only will the show do that, it will be as a deliberate tribute to Elizabeth and even add an extra actor to the group for good measure.