The Crown spans more than 60 years in the history of the British royal family. For two and a half seasons, the Netflix series had been working towards perhaps the most tragic event in history: the death of Princess Diana.
In season 6, the series finds a “creative” way of dealing with the immediate grief of the relatives, especially Prince Charles. Let’s call it what it is: The Crown brings Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) back as a ghost after her fatal accident in Paris. As a kind of personified, physical memory, she has final conversations, including with the Queen. The Diana spirit was received with skepticism almost everywhere – by critics and audiences. But why? And how does showrunner Peter Morgan defend the scenes?
“Bizarre”: Why Diana’s ghost is criticized in The Crown season 6
The spirit of Diana returns in two scenes: in a conversation with Charles and in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton). Additionally, a manifestation of Dodi Al-Fayed (Cas Anvar) appears to his father Mohammed.
Diana’s meeting with Charles (Dominic West) openly pursues one goal: forgiveness. Charles is plagued by a guilty conscience and his ex-wife relieves him: “You know that I loved you so much, so much. But also so painfully. That’s over now. It will be easier for everyone when I’m gone,” she says.
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Diana’s ghost meets the Queen
The last sentence is crucial. Here, among others, Radhika Seth asks at Vogue: “Are these things that Diana, at least in The Crown’s imagination, would say?” Because of course the series, which has always defined itself as a very free adaptation of the Royals story, goes way out of the window with this embellishment. Overall, Seth views the Diana decision as “The Crown’s first big misstep”.
Vulture gathered four authors to discuss how “bizarre” exactly the ghost appearance is. The title: ““The Crown made a shocking decision”. The British Guardian also sees the treatment of Diana as exemplary “Screenplay that hardly has any claim to craft, let alone art”.
The Crown creator defends Ghost Diana
Even before the start of The Crown Season 6, Peter Morgan fervently threw himself into the fight for his Diana vision. He correctly states to Deadline that “the word ‘spirit’ is not helpful”. Because he has “Nothing ever written from a supernatural perspective, not at all.”
However, the critics do not deny this at all. Vulture, for example, acknowledges that “These are less ghosts in the traditional sense and more like apparitions that Mohamed, Charles and Elizabeth imagine as they wrestle with their grief.”
This is Peter Morgan’s point of view very precisely:
It was more of a representation of the fact that someone who has just died is still alive in the minds of those who are close to them and love them. And sometimes it’s impossible to put them out of your mind. It felt more like an extension of her in real life to me than a ghost.
The criticism that rather Taste and the artistry of the Diana decision questioned, doesn’t take the wind out of Morgan’s sails. He told Variety that Diana deserved special treatment in royal history. Unfortunately, he overshot his goal with this project.
The first four episodes of The Crown season 6 are now available on Netflix. The final six episodes follow on December 14th.