The Crown Has Already Teased Who Season 5’s Big Villains Will Be
The Crown season 4 has already set the stage for Season 5's big villains. Here's how the media and other villains could affect the royal family.
After wrapping up season 4, The Crown made it clear who season 5's villains would be — the media and the crown itself. As season 4 of the hit Netflix series introduced Princess Diana's story, her increasingly strained relationship with the Crown and the media are the next natural progression in her story.
The Crown follows the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, starting from her rise to the throne and later years as a monarch. As the show has progressed, it has begun to introduce more of Elizabeth's contemporaries, the most anticipated of whom has been Princess Diana, Price Charles' first wife. Season four chronicles Charles and Diana's whirlwind courtship through the media's fascination with her, all the way to the beginning of the end of their marriage.
The final moment of The Crown season 4 was a lingering shot of the sadness on Diana's face, indicating that her story will continue to be a huge focus for The Crown season 5. Charles and Diana's marriage is set to end in the show's upcoming season. That means Diana's increasingly hostile relationship with the Crown and the media will be featured, making them the obvious villains for season 5. For the first time in the show's history, The Crown's protagonist and main focus is poised to become its antagonist.
True to what Diana said in real life, The Crown shows that The Princess of Wales had little support from the monarchy. As Charles was in love with his now-wife Camilla Parker-Bowles during the entirety of his time with Diana, she was trapped in a loveless marriage. The Crown has shown on multiple occasions that the royal family, especially the Queen, is known for its stoicism. The show demonstrated that the family was simply unequipped to provide Diana with the emotional support she needed. The British media was also famously obsessed with ferociously tracking Diana's every move. They even continued to do so after her divorce from Charles. The Crown season 4 did a nice job setting the stage for just how deeply this affected Diana.
With her negative relationship with the monarchy and media firmly set in place, The Crown season 5 will see these forces in Diana's life become fully-fledged villains. Diana has become a sympathetic character both in history and the Netflix show. She was known as "the people's princess" in real life and is portrayed in a similar manner in The Crown. Season 4 was positioned to ensure the audience was on Diana's side. By default, viewers will be against Elizabeth in their inevitable split. While many shows would choose to always portray their protagonists in a positive light, Elizabeth was a real person who made mistakes over the course of her reign — and The Crown needs to show that. Her treatment of Diana, whether it was intentional or not, was one of those mistakes. While this will make for a villain status in The Crown season 5, it's hard to say if the show will bring viewers back onside before the show ends.