Netflix is set to start shooting Season 6 of “The Crown” this August, Variety can confirm, and the production is already looking for two actors to portray Prince William and Prince Harry.
“The Crown” casting associate Kate Bone put out a casting call on Thursday saying that she’s seeking two actors “with a strong physical resemblance” to portray the brothers.
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Its that time folks…Prince William & Harry – Season 6. This is an incredible opportunity! Please help us spread the word… pic.twitter.com/nFMSkUdsex
— Kate Bone (@KateBoneCasting) March 17, 2022
For Prince William, the production will consider actors aged between 16 and 21 and, for Prince Harry, actors aged between 16 and 20.
No previous acting experience is required and casting directors are calling for submissions from schools, sixth forms, drama groups and universities across the country.
Aspiring princes should submit a video application within the next two months.
Season 5 of “The Crown” is set to stream in November, with a new cast taking over to portray the royal family through the 1990s, including Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, and Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles. Jonny Lee Miller will also appear as Prime Minister John Major.
A young Prince William will be played by Dominic West’s son Senan West, as Variety exclusively revealed last year. He was always set to be replaced in Season 6, which will portray William and his younger brother Harry as teenagers.
The rest of the cast will likely stay the same.
The casting call for the teenage princes suggests Season 6 — which is slated to be “The Crown’s” final season — will explore the events of the early 2000s, in the aftermath of their mother Princess Diana’s death.
Although the producers never reveal their storylines in advance, 2001 is when 19-year-old Prince William began his undergraduate course at the University of St Andrew’s in Scotland, which is where he would meet his wife-to-be Kate Middleton. It is also the year Prince Harry was allegedly caught “regularly smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol,” according to newspaper reports, which resulted in Prince Charles taking the young prince to a detox center for heroin users in a bid to scare him straight.
Both princes were also regulars on the London club scene throughout the mid-aughts, during which time they were linked to dozens of sparkling young women.
Meanwhile their father, Prince Charles, was attempting to warm the public to his former mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he went on to marry in 2005, while their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II famously stopped a criminal trial in 2002 involving Diana’s former butler, who was accused of stealing the princess’s possessions after her death. The Queen had a sudden “recollection” that Burrell had informed her he was planning on taking the items, some of which were reportedly sold, which meant the case against him collapsed. Conveniently, the collapse of the trail meant that members of the royal family no longer had to fear being subpoenaed to testify, which could have led to a number of embarrassing revelations in the witness box.
2001 is also when Virgina Giuffre, the woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her as a teenager, claims she was trafficked to the prince by his friends Ghislaine Maxwell and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors; Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy in 2001 and is awaiting sentencing; Prince Andrew, who denies Giuffre’s claims, recently settled her civil suit out of court.
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