The Crown is coming back to screens in the coming months to bring audiences their final dose of the royal drama, with Netflix announcing that the hit show will air its series finale in two installments.
The first four episodes, which will focus on the death of Princess Diana, will be available to stream starting November 16. The final six episodes, which will debut December 14, dramatize Queen Elizabeth and her family’s transition into the new millennium.
In its announcement Monday, Netflix confirmed that the season will cover events during Elizabeth’s reign from the summer of 1997, when Diana died in a Paris car crash, to 2005, when Prince Charles (now King Charles III) married Camilla Parker Bowles.
In this new season, the focus will be on the younger generation of royals, most prominently Prince William (Ed McVey), Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) and Prince Harry (Luther Ford).
Here is everything we know about the actor playing the young Harry.
Who Is Luther Ford?
Ford is a British filmmaker who will make his on-screen debut in the second installment of The Crown’s sixth season, taking over from actor Fflyn Edwards, who plays Harry in the season’s earlier episodes.
In an interview with Hero magazine, Ford said he never intended to become an actor but attended an open-call casting session for The Crown on a whim.
“I didn’t apply with an expectation of getting it,” he said. “I just wanted to try.”
Playing Harry presented a challenge for the acting newcomer, but he said the key came from some advice given to the prince by Diana.
“I think the thing that helped me the most was that Diana said to Harry, ‘You can be as naughty as you like, just don’t get caught,'” Ford said. “And I was just like, Yes! It kind of summed up my experience of being in The Crown.”
Ford formed a close bond with McVey and Bellamy. The season will feature their blossoming royal romance and offer a glimpse into the monarchy’s future following the turbulent end of the 1990s.
Which Storylines Will Feature Harry?
Harry is expected to be featured as a major character throughout the final season of The Crown.
In the summer of 1997, where the events of Season 5 left off, the 12-year-old prince was spending a vacation at the royals’ Scottish castle, Balmoral, with William, Charles and the queen.
On August 31, the prince was awoken at the castle by his father and told that Diana had died from injuries she suffered in a car crash in Paris, which Harry wrote about in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
The Crown officially wrapped filming this past April. It is not yet known whether the series contains information supplied by Harry in its narrative.
At Diana’s funeral, Harry walked with his older brother, father, grandfather Prince Philip and uncle Earl Spencer behind the princess’s coffin on the journey to Westminster Abbey.
Harry was enrolled at Eton College in 1998, joining William at the school until his brother graduated in 2000. After graduating in 2004, Harry undertook a gap year, part of which he spent in Australia.
After returning home, Harry enrolled in the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2005 and began a career in the armed forces that would last until his retirement to take up full-time royal duties in 2015.
Apart from his post-educational life, Harry’s relationship with his brother is expected to be a key theme in The Crown‘s final season, particularly the “heir” and “spare” aspect.
The brother’s reactions to their father’s marriage to Bowles, which took place in 2005, could also be featured in the show. Harry revealed in his memoir that neither brother was initially supportive of the marriage.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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