Just as the British royal family thought they could sleep easy without every scandal being turned into entertainment, The Crown is back.
It has been reported that Peter Morgan, the creator of Netflix’s original smash hit series, has “signed the deal” for another royal TV deep dive.
“Peter had already been putting pen to pad and casting is expected to take place next year,” a source told the Daily Mail.
The new offering will feature feuding brothers, wives who don’t get along and talk of title stripping. Sounds familiar, right?
But it isn’t a young Prince William or Prince Harry who are in the firing line, with Morgan previously making it clear he would only return for a prequel, feeling it was too soon to tackle the recent, turbulent events.
Instead, the streamer is said to have ordered a major prequel series that will dive into the early 1900s through to 1947, covering the most sensitive, tightly managed era in royal history.
And while fans are already buzzing, Buckingham Palace is almost certainly bracing itself.
One might think that the Windsors would prefer the drama to stay out of the present day and dip into the past but that isn’t the case.
This is the period the monarchy has spent decades polishing, curating, and, in some cases, quietly steering away from public scrutiny.
The scandals the Palace still tiptoes around
The prequel is expected to open in 1901, during the final days of Queen Victoria. Often described as the matriarch of the modern House of Windsor — even though the family didn’t adopt that name until after her death — Victoria remains one of the royals’ most carefully managed historical figures.
The Palace has long been sensitive about how she is portrayed, and Australian historian Julia Baird knows that better than most.
Julia, who wrote a major biography of the monarch, has spoken openly about the barriers she faced while researching Victoria’s life.
She revealed that she was blocked from accessing official material for years, even though Victoria’s own daughter had already rewritten and sanitised large portions of the Queen’s diaries to remove anything deemed too personal or politically delicate.
When Baird finally did gain access — only after the Governor‑General intervened — she says the pushback didn’t stop.
“Royal archivists tried to censor my draft manuscript,” she wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald. “The parts they wanted cut out were from Queen Victoria’s doctor’s records, which I found in Scotland, not in the archives, and which contained compelling evidence of her love for John Brown. I was tied up with lawyers on three continents for months.”
It’s a revealing glimpse into how fiercely the Palace still protects Victoria’s legacy and a sign of why this era may be the most uncomfortable one yet for the royals to see dramatised.
While Britain fared relatively well under the long reigns of Victoria and her great‑great‑granddaughter Elizabeth II, the same cannot be said for the kings who ruled in the 51 years between them. And that is exactly where the new series will spend most of its time.
The drama will plunge straight into the reign of Edward VII — a monarch celebrated for his charm but dogged by a reputation as a pleasure‑seeking playboy. His private life has always been a delicate subject for royal insiders, and The Crown has never shied away from exploring the personal lives of its characters.
From there, the series moves through the turbulent decades that followed, culminating in the 1936 abdication crisis which is still regarded as one of the most destabilising moments in modern royal history.
The Duke of Windsor’s decision to give up the throne for American divorcée Wallis Simpson remains a storyline courtiers continue to handle with extreme caution. It is a chapter the Palace prefers to frame in controlled, dignified terms, not through the lens of a prestige drama watched by millions.
It challenges the monarchy’s carefully crafted origin story
The series ends with the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, where The Crown began upon its premiere in 2016.
This is a moment the Palace has long framed as the beginning of a golden era. But to reach that point, the show will explore the young princess’s childhood, her parents’ marriage, and the pressures placed on her from birth.
These are years the Palace prefers to present as serene and dignified. But The Crown has never been shy about showing the emotional cost of royal life.
Even Princess Anne has acknowledged the show’s impact, saying, “You have to remember that The Crown is fiction,” a rare royal comment that still hints at discomfort.
If the prequel portrays the young Elizabeth as a child shaped by duty and family tension, it could shift public perception of the late Queen’s early life — something the Palace has always guarded closely.
The fine line between villain and victim
Queen Mary, George V, and the early Windsors are often depicted as stoic, almost mythic figures in official royal narratives. But The Crown’s signature style is to humanise its characters; flaws, fears, and all.
That approach has frustrated the Palace before. During the Season 4 accuracy debate, a spokesperson for the UK Culture Secretary publicly reminded viewers that “It is a drama, not a documentary.”
Buckingham Palace itself issued a statement saying the family had “never been approached to comment on the content of the series,” a subtle but pointed distancing.
The message has always been clear: the royals don’t endorse these portrayals and they don’t like them either.
And if the series chooses to humanise Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson (and go beyond the myth of their great love story perpetuated by the palace), it may be even more uncomfortable if they are treated too sympathetically.
Modern historians have documented aspects of their lives that the monarchy has long avoided discussing publicly, including their well‑established sympathies for authoritarian regimes and their deeply controversial political associations in the 1930s.
“Their Nazi sympathies is an ugly truth that really can no longer be ignored,” royal history authority Justine Picardie recently told WHO.
The early 20th century was a politically charged period for the monarchy. The prequel will inevitably touch on colonial tensions, shifting public attitudes, and the monarchy’s evolving role during wartime — topics the Palace rarely engages with publicly.
The Palace’s standard response to The Crown has always been to say nothing. But with the prequel exploring the foundations of the modern monarchy, the stakes feel higher.
Whether they comment or not, the royals will be watching, and it is likely they won’t like what they see.
