The Crown Will End After Season 5 — and They've Cast Imelda Staunton as the Final Queen Elizabeth!

The Crown has found the “perfect time and place to stop.”

Creator Peter Morgan has revealed the Netflix hit will wrap after the fifth season.

“At the outset I had imagined The Crown running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for season five it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop,” said Morgan. “I’m grateful to Netflix and Sony for supporting me in this decision.”

The show has also cast their final Queen Elizabeth: Imelda Staunton will succeed Claire Foy (seasons 1 and 2) and Olivia Colman (seasons 3 and 4) in the royal role.

“I have loved watching The Crown from the very start,” said Staunton, who has earned five Olivier awards and a BAFTA award. “As an actor it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan’s scripts. I am genuinely honored to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion.”

Film and theatre star Staunton is most popularly known for playing Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films and also recently starred as Lady Bagshaw in the Downton Abbey movie. She was also nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role Vera Drake, a 1950s British drama about illegal abortions.

Familiar with keeping royal company, Staunton has not only received an OBE but also a CBE for her services to drama, which was presented to her by Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2016.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to confirm Imelda Staunton as Her Majesty The Queen for the fifth and final season, taking The Crown into the 21st Century,” Morgan said. “Imelda is an astonishing talent and will be a fantastic successor to Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.”

Although Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s exit from royal life and the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein have dominated headlines in recent months, the storylines will not make it to The Crown — and it was never the intention to cover the royal family up to the modern era.

Executive producer Suzanne Mackie told the Press Association earlier this month: “To be honest, whatever the life of The Crown is after where we are now, I doubt we’ll ever go as far into the present day.”

Morgan made similar claims during a 2018 interview, telling Entertainment Weekly that the show wouldn’t include Meghan “because it’s too close to the moment.”

“I feel uncomfortable writing about events within a certain time period,” he said.

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“Let’s wait twenty years and see what there is to say about Meghan Markle,” Morgan added. “I don’t know what there is to say about Meghan Markle at the moment. I wouldn’t know and I wouldn’t presume. She’ll only become interesting once we’ve had twenty years to digest who she is and what her impact has been. If I were to write about Meghan Markle I would automatically be writing journalistically. I’ve got nothing to say about Meghan Markle.”