392853 18: Prince William waits for The Queen Mother during celebrations to mark her 101st birthday August 4, 2001 in London. (Photo by Sion Touhig/Getty Images)
Netflix’s popular series ‘The Crown’ has finally found its Prince William. Senan West, the 13-year-old son of actor Dominic West, who will appear as Prince Charles, has joined the cast to play the Duke of Cambridge.
As per Variety, the real-life father and son will be playing Prince Charles and Prince William in the highly anticipated fifth season of the hit Netflix show. Elizabeth Debicki will play his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, replacing actor Emma Corrin. According to the outlet, Senan has been cast as a slightly older Prince William, portraying him as he begins to mature into a young man. He will make his on-screen debut in the final episodes of the season.
William had just turned 15 in 1997 when Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris alongside her beau, Dodi Al Fayed. As Variety revealed in September, Al Fayed will be portrayed in the series by actor Khalid Abdalla.
There is no word on whether Diana’s death will be depicted on the show, but the casting suggests viewers will certainly see events leading up to and possibly following the crash.
The Emmy-winning drama, which changes its cast every two seasons to reflect the passing of time in the royal family’s lives, will see Imelda Staunton take over from Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Pryce has been cast as Charles’ father, Prince Philip; Lesley Manville will play Charles’s aunt Princess Margaret, and Jonny Lee Miller is set to make an appearance as Prime Minister John Major.
The fourth season, which came out in November 2020, ended in the late 1980s. Season 5 will follow the royal family through the 1990s.
Though season 5 was initially intended to be the series’ curtain call, showrunners changed their minds and assured that the historical drama will continue to rule Netflix queues for a final, sixth season.
“As we started to discuss the storylines for Series 5, it soon became clear that in order to do justice to the richness and complexity of the story we should go back to the original plan and do six seasons,” creator Peter Morgan said in July 2020.
“To be clear, Series 6 will not bring us any closer to present-day — it will simply enable us to cover the same period in greater detail,” Morgan added.
Season 6 will take the royals to the early 2000s, though the future Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met at St. Andrew’s around then, a character channelling Kate Middleton is not expected to grace the small screen.
Seasons 1 through 4 of ‘The Crown’ are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 5 is expected to premiere in November 2022.
