Hear ye, hear ye: The fourth season of Netflix’s "The Crown" is officially streaming.
Now, while you may be excited to dive in headfirst and swallow the entire season in one season...heed our warnings. This season is going to be a toughie to watch, as it introduces Lady Diana Spencer and the beginnings of her ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles. "The Crown" does its best to follow history -- except in some areas where they can’t resist the temptation of fabricating drama -- and we all know how this story ends.
"You’re trying desperately to remain truthful about what you’re writing about, whereas, in fact, you’re so burdened with what you know happens," creator Peter Morgan said in the clip below.
So, take your time with this one. And make it last -- we likely won’t see season 5, in which the cast is once again swapped to match the depicted era, until this time next year.
In anticipation of the episodes’ release, Netflix has been dropping teasers all over social media (like this sweet little moment with Olivia Colman and Emma Corrin) to really build the allure. These stills, for example, where we get a first look at young Princes William and Harry.
But what struck me more was this newer behind-the-scenes clip, where flashes of the new episodes play over cast and crew interviews. They touch on the arrival of these two new bombshell characters, Diana and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and how the focus will shift to incorporate them. Corrin reveals that the season will encompass Diana from age 16 to 28 (“It explores everything from marriage to her discovering her voice and who she is.”), and Colman discusses how the Queen and Thatcher didn’t get along as well as everyone -- including them -- had hoped.
But as the trailer goes on, executive producer Suzanne Mackie brings up an important point about the series: It is, and always will be, about Elizabeth R. As caught up as viewers may get in the Charles and Diana story, or how invested they may be in Gillian Anderson’s Thatcher, the story must always go back to Her Majesty the Queen.
"The Queen is our protagonist. You stray too far from her at your peril," she said. "So you constantly have to bring it back to the Crown, because that will then inform the stories we’re telling."
It’s a sentiment that they made a point of a getting across in the season, evidenced by the voiceover of Tobias Menzies, our Duke of Edinburgh, saying, "She’s the oxygen we all breathe. The essence of all our duty. The only person that matters."
So, godspeed, all you royals fans. Just remember who’s Queen.