Netflix has just announced another original, set to premiere in 2016.
The streaming company has ordered a 10-episode season of The Crown, a show about Queen Elizabeth II and various historical events during her long reign. The play on which the new show is based, Peter Morgan’s The Audience, “centers on the weekly audiences given by Queen Elizabeth II to prime ministers that date back from her accession in 1952 to the present day” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Morgan, who also penned the Oscar-winning film The Queen, will join Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) on the project.
We first heard about Netflix and The Crown when the company had just beaten out the BBC and ITV for rights to the historical drama. At that point it was likely that The Crown would become a Netflix original, but today we get the confirmation.
“The Crown is storytelling that lives somewhere between television and cinema from Britain’s foremost chroniclers of modern politics, class and society,” said Cindy Holland, vp original content at Netflix. “We are enormously proud to be the exclusive home of a series from Peter Morgan and Stephen Daldry that promises to fascinate and entertain audiences around the world.”
“The Crown is not only about the royal family but about an empire in decline, a world in disarray and the dawn of a new era. I am beyond thrilled to be reunited with partners from film, theatre and television for this epic project and delighted to be working for the first time with Netflix,” said Morgan.
The series will premiere in 2016. Deadline is reporting that the showrunners have already found their Queen – 30-year-old Claire Foy. She’ll be one Queen, that is – as the series tackles The Queens’ reign from 1952-on, multiple actresses will likely be tapped to play the royal.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
