Is The Crown on Netflix hinting of a Republican agenda? Is it pushing the idea that the Queen is the only monarchy befitting to remain on the throne and that once she is gone, she must be replaced by an elected head of state that will effectively dissolve the royal family?
This is what royal expert Hugo Vickers claims is the underlying message of The Crown, an award-winning TV drama airing on the streaming platform. In an interview with Daily Express, Vickers warned that there could be viewers who would be convinced that no one else is qualified to be the monarch among the Queen's heirs thus its very idea must be ditched upon her death.
Vickers said that the first two seasons of The Crown portrayed the Queen, through actress Claire Foy, as a likable and wonderful person, while everyone around her was not nice and quite foolish. This underlying message supported the Republican idea that the monarchy is fine with Queen Elizabeth, but when she dies, it would be time to get rid of the royal family.
The royal expert even published a book dissecting the first two seasons of The Crown. In "The Crown: Truth & Fiction: An Expert Analysis of Netflix Series," Vickers warned that viewers of the series must be alert about this Republican agenda and know that the plotlines on the show are not accurate; it is fictionalized.
The Crown creator Peter Morgan said in an interview with The Telegraph that his show doesn't focus on accuracy 100 percent of the time. He had to take some artistic license in depicting Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the royals to come up with a good series.
Meanwhile, reports revealed in 2017 that Queen Elizabeth binged The Crown season 1 with her son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex. The Queen, however, was disappointed in how her husband, Prince Philip was portrayed in the second season and realized that viewers might believe everything they've seen on the show when it wasn't accurate.
In 2019, Buckingham Palace released a statement to say that the royal family does not endorse The Crown nor it is complicit in its fictionalization of the royal family's life. Prince William also personally told Olive Colman, who plays Queen Elizabeth in season 3 and 4, that he has never seen the show.
The Crown season 1 to 3 are currently streaming on Netflix while season 4 is in the middle of production.
