TV Peter Morgan changed the ending of The Crown because of the Queen's death "I had to try and find a way in which the final episode dealt with the character’s death," the showrunner said. By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 26, 2023 07:39PM EDT The Queen is dead, long live The Crown. When Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, 2022 after reigning for 70 years (the longest in British history), it marked the end of an era — and it also meant that creator Peter Morgan needed to address the historic event in his Netflix series about the monarch, The Crown. Morgan told Variety that the Queen's death simply could not be left unaddressed in the series, despite the fact that its sixth and final season will end around 2005, nearly two decades before Elizabeth's actual passing. "We'd all been through the experience of the funeral," he said "So because of how deeply everybody will have felt that, I had to try and find a way in which the final episode dealt with the character's death, even though she hadn't died yet." Imelda Staunton on 'The Crown'. Netflix Morgan did originally consider making Queen Elizabeth's death the official end of the series, but she outlasted that idea once he decided to conclude the show in 2005. "It was the cutoff to keep it historical, not journalistic," he explained. "I think by stopping almost 20 years before the present day, it's dignified." On Thursday, the first trailer for Part One of season 6 of The Crown dropped. It features clips from the first four episodes of the final season, which hit Netflix on Nov. 16 (the season is being divided into two parts and the second half will hit the platform on Dec. 14). As expected, Part One will focus heavily on Princess Diana's death in a car accident, as well as the tragedy's emotional fallout within the royal family and their struggles to privately attend to their grief, while also address a mourning nation. The first part of the series stars Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, and Salim Daw as Mohamed Al Fayed. Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Related content: Princess Diana's fatal car ride looms large in The Crown season 6 trailer Elizabeth Debicki's Princess Diana keeps William and Harry close in first look at The Crown season 6 Prince William and Kate Middleton meet cute in first-look images from The Crown season 6