The award-winning team behind Netflix’s new royal drama The Crown has already “mapped out” the next two seasons of the biopic, with the action running up to the end of the 1980s and the marriage of Diana to Prince Charles.
The first season deals with the relationship between Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend in the 1950s as well as the Queen’s accession to the throne. In an interview with the Guardian, Andy Harries, the co-founder of Left Bank Pictures, said: “There are so many things in [the next series] – Thatcher, Blair, Diana. But I’m sure Netflix will want to wait and see how this one goes first.”
Three lawyers worked on the current series, which launches on 4 November, because its writer, Peter Morgan, and the Left Bank production team were keen to avoid legal threats from those depicted who are still alive.
The fact that the series is launching on the US-based streaming service has highlighted the expansion of global entertainment groups into the UK. “This is a very, very British project with very experienced British talent and then we working for a global media company,” said Harries, who received an Academy Award nomination as producer of The Queen, also with Morgan.
Harries, Morgan and director Stephen Daldry went to the US believing they would probably end up with a global partner for the BBC in the UK. Netflix, however, had already “mapped out their global rollout” internally and offered £100m for the two series within 40 minutes.
“I came out of the room, I felt like I’d been in Tutankhamun’s tomb or something,” said Harries. “They said: ‘Yes, we will pay for it, we will support you, you can do what you want and by the way it will be launching in 190 countries at the same time.’ It’s staggering! It’s just a different world and this is where the world is going.”
Netflix was looking for content that would help it grow not just in the UK but globally and which might attract older subscribers. The UK marketing plan involves special screenings for the Women’s Institute.
Harries admits that his mother might have to become a Netflix subscriber to watch the show.
