Proof That The Crown Is Fiction: This Storyline Never Happened in Real Life

Summary

• One of Netflix's most popular series, The Crown, has just come to an end.
• The show was largely fictionalized, so the events it depicts should not be taken at face value.
• The most impactful scene of the finale was imagined by the showrunners and has no known basis in real life.

After debuting in 2016, The Crown quickly gained popularity and became one of Netflix's flagship shows, attracting millions of viewers over its eight-year run. And despite its recent conclusion, it is still very much loved by audiences.

Following a fictionalized version of the British royal family, The Crown chronicles Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne and her record-breaking reign, set against the backdrop of many scandals and tragedies that have plagued the British monarchy over the decades. But while the show is based on real events, it's important to remember that things didn't happen exactly as they are portrayed in The Crown. For example, this storyline was purely fictional and used by the showrunners to embellish the plot.

Queen Elizabeth II's Abdication Thoughts

The final episode of The Crown takes place in 2005, several years after the tragic death of Princess Diana. Specifically, it focuses on the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, at which the late queen gave a speech. But the episode also explores the monarch's reported thoughts about retiring from her royal duties. The latter storyline, however, was invented by the showrunners and has no known basis in real life.

Although there were several abdications in Europe at the time, the late monarch never even expressed the possibility of abdicating. Shown as an internal debate with her younger selves, portrayed by Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, Queen Elizabeth's self-talk about abdicating showed that she simply couldn't do it, as she felt it was her duty to serve the country and its people.

The Crown's Showrunner on the Abdication Storyline

'That is very much a moment of Peter Morgan's dramatist imagination. Of course, she would never have that conversation with anyone else, and she didn't. We deliberately, very consciously didn't let that happen because she wouldn't, that would be disingenuous and doing her a disservice. She would never abdicate. Of course she wouldn't. Her duty and her pledge was to serve till the day she died, and that's what she did. She did it beautifully,' Suzanne Mackie, The Crown's EP, shared in an interview.

Yet, the storyline was delivered in a very convincing way – perhaps, due to the writers' delicate approach to it.

'It was an imagined, internal conversation that she would simply not have with anyone else, because the truth is she would never abdicate. But, again, in the context of the time, knowing that there were these abdications going on, it felt like an interesting thing to unpack and explore, but never with the intention of saying she really was going to,' the showrunner said.

'And I delicately dawn that we all have massive dilemmas at times in life, but you wouldn't necessarily share those dilemmas with people. There are conversations you might have only with yourself.'

And it was a very impactful and memorable conversation The Crown's fans will keep in their hearts.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter.