‘The Crown’ creator Peter Morgan teases future royal projects: ‘I don’t think I’m done with the subject’
It may not be a royal exit.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published Thursday, “The Crown” creator Peter Morgan said he’s not closing the door on dramatizing the royal family.
“For the time being, I cannot imagine any circumstances in which I’d want to go further into the present, as it were, but at the same time, I don’t think I’m done with the subject,” he said.
Morgan added, “I might find some way of coming into it from a different way. If you go back in time, you always have that wonderful opportunity for metaphor. You can find a story in the past and tell that, and it [will] actually be a story about the present, but in camouflage.”
“The Crown” aired for six seasons on Netflix, dramatizing the royal family from the early days of Queen Elizabeth’s reign through the death of Princess Diana. The star-studded show included Claire Foy, Matt Smith, Elizabeth Debicki, Dominic West, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton, among others.
Season 6 of the Emmy-winning streaming hit ended in 2023, dramatizing the early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship, Prince Harry’s Nazi uniform scandal, and Charles and Camilla’s wedding.
In the past, Morgan has said he wouldn’t cover the era of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
During a 2020 interview with THR, he said, “I just think you get so much more interesting [with time]. Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey, and I don’t know what their journey is or how it will end.”
Morgan explained that he has a 20-year rule: “I’m much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago…That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance.”
Morgan continued, “Often things that appear absolutely wildly important today are instantly forgotten, and other things have a habit of sticking around and proving to be historically very relevant and long-lasting.”
He said he doesn’t know where Harry and Meghan or Prince Andrew’s scandals will land.
“You need time to stop something being journalistic. And so I don’t want to write about them because to write about them would instantly make it journalistic. And there are plenty of journalists already writing about them. To be a dramatist, I think you need perspective.”
But this week, Morgan didn’t sound as sure. Instead of saying he’d never cover Prince Andrew or Meghan, he shared, “To move forward from where I left the show off at the moment feels too soon.”
Morgan also told the outlet that he’s heard various accounts of what the real royals such as Prince William, Middleton and King Charles think of his show.
“I’ve heard that they love it, I’ve heard that they hate it, I’ve heard everything,” he said.
“I’ve decided that until one of the members of the royal family tells me directly, in person, I won’t believe anything that I hear.”
