Spoiler Alert: This news story features details from Season 6 of The Crown
The Crown’s stirring finale has landed on Netflix — and there is a surprise for fans of the series.
Olivia Colman and Claire Foy have reprised the role of Queen Elizabeth II to flank Imelda Staunton in some of the Netflix show’s final scenes.
Directed by the returning Stephen Daldry, the concluding episode features the Queen making arrangements for “Operation London Bridge,” the codename for her death and funeral.
Staunton’s monarch is also considering abdicating the throne and is visited by apparitions of her younger self as she grapples with the idea.
Colman and Foy return to offer their wisdom before the curtain is ready to fall on the lavish series with a shot of the three Queen’s in unison under the arches of Westminster Abbey.
They are standing in front of a vision of the Queen’s coffin, an image that has all the more potency after Her Majesty died last year at the age of 96.
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, The Crown executive producer Andy Harries said the finale, titled Sleep, Dearie Sleep, is among his favorite episodes from the six seasons.
“It’s a truly beautiful piece of work and is a tremendous homage to the monarch. It’s grand, sweeping, and emotional. It’s one of those films that came together,” he said.
Staunton told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday that it was emotional filming scenes as Queen Elizabeth on the day after her funeral.
“I filmed the next day after her funeral and I think it was very strange for the other people looking at me, seeing that figure, that shape,” she said. “We were thrown off our axis, there’s no doubt about it.”