‘The Crown’ Season 2: When Will Princess Diana Appear?

Warning: This article may contain spoilers for The Crown Season 2 and beyond.

Fans of Downtown Abbey found a new show to obsess over this holiday season: The Crown.

The lavishly produced Netflix series focuses on the reign of Great Britain’s current monarch, Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy), and the dramatic public and private lives of the other members of the Windsor royal line.

Season 1 picked up with the events leading up to Elizabeth’s ascension to the crown, her somewhat rocky marriage to the sullen Prince Philip (Matt Smith), and her reluctant interference with sister Princess Margaret’s (Vanessa Kirby) would-be marriage to a divorced man.

The Crown Season 2 is already under production — with scenes recently shot in South Africa — and is expected to hit HBO in late 2017. People caught up with the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, to learn what’s coming up next for the royals, and discovered the focus of the series will already begin to turn to young Prince Charles in the new season.

“We start to focus on Charles as a young boy and his education, and on Philip and his back story,” Morgan says.

He says that The Crown Season 2 will also look at Britain’s changing society between the years of 1957 and 1964.

“It’s goodbye to a different, Edwardian, post-Imperial world,” Morgan adds. “We get a classlessness and a modernity beginning to creep in. It is going to be terrific.”

Executive producer Suzanne Mackie was also interviewed and provided more insight into Philip’s storyline.

“We glance backward to Philip’s childhood and his upbringing, and how that might have impacted him as a man, a father and as Prince Consort — which is fascinating.”

So when will Princess Diana finally be introduced?

According to Morgan, the “People’s Princess” will appear toward the end of Season 3 and be featured “heavily” in Seasons 4 and 5. There is no word yet on who will play her.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair spoke with Vanessa Kirby about what’s coming up for Margaret in The Crown Season 2 as she recovers from her doomed romance with Peter Townshend (Ben Miles).

“She meets [photographer and future husband] Antony Armstrong-Jones, and she goes head first into a completely new, exciting, dangerous, volatile, dysfunctional relationship and then marriage,” Kirby said.

“Tony starts this whole trail of a more bohemian life outside,” she continued. “Margaret was best friends with Elizabeth Taylor, and she had loads of American actress friends and singers. You see these two worlds collide—hers and Tony’s, who is a member of the public and was a creative, liberal, dark horse. Meanwhile, she is this epitome of the establishment. I’ve been doing tons of research about it recently, and seen people say there was never such an ill-fated match because Margaret and Tony were just so alike personality-wise that he was the opposite of Peter.”

Finally, series lead — and Golden Globe nominee — Claire Foy recently confirmed to Vulture that she and the rest of the actors portraying the Windsor clan will likely be recast in favor of older actors after The Crown Season 2.

“After two seasons, that’s it. I’m gone,” she explained. “They’re getting rid of all of us.”

Though it’s a bold move to replace the series leads after just two seasons, Foy said she is at peace with the decision.

“I don’t how they’re planning on doing it, but they’re such an incredible bunch of directors and producers that it’s gonna be different and exciting. It’ll be original. I can’t wait to see where it goes. I’m so honored to have been involved at this stage. I couldn’t be happier really. There’ll be no 3 a.m. makeup call for me!”

Foy also confessed that she’s met Queen Elizabeth, but isn’t sure her interpretation of the monarch will garner another opportunity to rub elbows with the royals.

“I have [met her]!” she said. “Many years ago, about five or six years ago, before I knew was gonna play her. I won’t hold my breath about getting another invite anytime soon.”

Are you looking forward to Princess Diana’s debut in The Crown?

The Crown Season 2 premieres on Netflix later this year.

[Featured Image by Netflix]