How The Crown Could Portray Diana's Death, According To Industry Insiders

Season 5 of The Crown is rumoured to start filming sometime next year, so we have a while to wait before we can binge another series of the Netflix hit.

It isn’t yet known which particular royal events will be represented in the fifth and sixth series, although both seasons have been confirmed with Tenet actor Elizabeth Debicki taking over from Emma Corrin to play Princess Diana.

There’s no way to know either, just how the writers and producers will represent the tragic death of the princess, which had a seismic cultural impact on our national consciousness when she died in a car crash in 1997.

Diana’s death instigated conversations about how our nation deals with grief. The event is something that anyone who was alive at the time remembers vividly.

Diana’s legacy can also still be felt: her work as an activist is remembered by her set of incredibly devoted fans, some of whom HuffPost UK spoke with earlier this month when Emma Corrin began playing the role of a young Diana in season 4 of The Crown.

So how might The Crown portray the death of the princess, one of the 20th century’s most shocking events?

″I don’t imagine for a moment they’d be so sensationalist as to show the accident,” says Philip Lawrence, a scriptwriter for Casualty who has written a death scene for the show. “No one needs to see that. It’s the reactions of those left behind that will really tug at the heartstrings.”

He adds: “Writing real-life tragedy, especially something within living memory like The Salisbury Poisonings or the death of Princess Diana, you can’t ignore the fact that some viewers are already emotionally scarred by it. But I do think it’s possible to be dramatic and still respectful and sensitive.”

Philip’s sentiment is aligned with that of The Crown’s creative team. When HuffPost UK spoke with Benjamin Caron, director...

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