Who plays Princess Diana in The Crown? Season 4, 5 and 6 actresses

With the latest season set to include the death of the Princess of Wales, viewers want to know who plays Princess Diana in The Crown. 

For those wondering what to watch in November, Netflix has got you covered with the return of one of its most popular shows. The Crown season returns on Thursday 16 November, while a second instalment of episodes lands on the streaming service on 14 December 2023. And with a large part of the season focussing on how Dodi met Diana, their romantic relationship and the princess' tragic death, it's got many wanting to know who plays Princess Diana in the popular series. 

Some fans will have noticed that the actress who plays the Princess of Wales changed between season four and five. Previously played by Emma Corrin, producers recast the iconic royal for the fifth season in light of her older age. And just like we've looked at who plays Kate Middleton in The Crown, we've also revealed the actress who plays Princess Diana in season six...

Who plays Princess Diana in The Crown season 6?

Princess Diana is played by Elizabeth Debicki in The Crown season six, with the talented Australian actress resuming her role following on from her successful season five stint. 

Speaking about reprising the role, which follows the lead-up to the death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997, Elizabeth told Netflix's Tudum, “It's a really unique challenge as an actor to portray those days.”

Watch On

As seen in the new trailer, season six picks up as Diana heads to the south of France to spend the summer with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, having accepted an invitation from Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw). In the voiceover, Elizabeth as Diana says, “I don’t really know how I ended up here: dashing around and losing sight of myself in the process. You know I think that’s been the story of my whole life.” 

The paparazzi interest grows and Elizabeth recreates one of the photographs Diana is best remembered for, as she sits alone on the edge of the yacht’s diving board wearing a blue swimsuit.

Elizabeth recalled, “There was just something about that swimsuit and re-creating that moment that felt very sacred and important. In a way, it reminded me a little bit of when we shot the revenge dress [in Season 5]. It’s as close as possible to the real imagery, and yet what I get to do as an actress is enter into that space and get to discover what’s emotionally in that moment.”

And speaking about diving into those difficult weeks for Diana, having undergone movement and speech training, she said, “It was like coming home. It’s a thrill because it was much less recall, it almost felt more normal.”

Elizabeth was just seven years old when Princess Diana died, but she can still recall the time. “I was seven when it happened. I have a very distinct memory of watching the funeral when I was a kid and watching the two princes. My mother was devastated and I was trying to process.”

And she acknowledged her part now in ensuring she celebrates Diana’s life as well as doing justice to her death.

She added, “For me, one of the things that felt so important - because we know where the story is going - is to make sure that there was real joy and happiness and lightness and genuine fun on the screen. That was really the piece I felt that I could control in a way, and that became a real focus.”

She also revealed who made her happier on set, it was her on-screen sons Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Prince Harry (Fflyn Edwards), “They’re really beautiful kids. They’re very smart and they’re funny, and they’re very kind - I was genuinely so much happier when they were on set and I had scenes with them.”

Elizabeth will say goodbye to the series, and she has fondly looked back on what she will miss the most, “I really will miss playing this role. There have been so many tumultuous and painful bits of storytelling that I’ve had to do, but also it’s so vivid and there’s so much beauty there and there’s so much love and there’s so much desire to connect to people. It’s not something that you can do in everyday life.”

Who plays Princess Diana in The Crown season 5? 

Elizabeth Debicki also plays Princess Diana in The Crown Season 5. Best known for her roles in The Great Gatsby and Tenet, at the time the 32-year-old said in 2020 that it was her "true privilege" to accept the role, adding, "Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many." 

Ahead of the season five premiere, Elizabeth was quick to defend The Crown's writers when asked about the controversy surrounding the shows. representation of the Royal Family.

"I'll say that Peter and the entire crew of this job do their utmost to really handle everything with such sensitivity and truth and complexity, as do actors," she told Entertainment Weekly. "The amount of research and care and conversations and dialogue that happen over, from a viewer's perspective, something probably that you would never ever notice is just immense. From that very first meeting [with] Peter, I knew that I'd entered into this space where this was taken seriously [in] a deeply caring way. So that's my experience of the show."

Events depicted in The Crown season five include the late Queen Elizabeth's annus horribilis in 1992 as well as the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage and a dramatisation of Princess Diana's Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

Watch On

Who is Elizabeth Debicki?

Elizabeth Debicki is an Australian actress who previously has appeared in The Great Gatsby, Guardians of the Galaxy and BBC's The Night Manager, though she is best known for her role in The Crown. 

Born in Paris in 1990 to a Polish father and an Australian mother, Elizabeth Debicki was exposed to the world of the performance arts from a young age. She followed in her parent's footsteps by training to be a ballet dancer, only to switch careers to pursue acting instead. She enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts in 2008, graduating with a degree in drama in 2010. 

In 2011, she made her first film debut, starring in the Australian comedy, A Few Best Men, as a secretary. It was 2012, however, that truly catapulted Debicki to stardom. The talented actor was cast in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, appearing alongside Tobey MacGuire, Carey Mulligan, and Leonardo DiCaprio in the historical romantic drama. 

Her portrayal of the mysterious Jordan Baker earned Debicki an abundance of positive reviews, with many critics hailing her performance as one of the best to feature in the movie. She even won an AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, solidifying her as one-to-watch at the awards circuit. 

After her breakthrough role in The Great Gatsby, Debicki was (understandably) in high demand on the Hollywood scene. She went on to star in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Burnt Orange Heresy with Mick Jagger, as well as the Guardian of the Galaxy film series. In 2018, she appeared on-screen in a whopping four films - The Tale, The Cloverfield Paradise, Widows and Vita & Virginia - and lent her voice to the character of Mopsy Rabbit in the animated 3D movie, Peter Rabbit. 

Before landing the role of Princess Diana in The Crown season five and six, she starred in Christopher Nolan's Tenet alongside Robert Pattison.

Who played Princess Diana in The Crown season 4? 

Emma Corrin played Princess Diana in The Crown season four. As is tradition with the Netflix royal series, the characters are replaced as time moves on, to accurately reflect their appearances at an older age, hence Emma's absence from season five and six of the show. 

And it seems they weren't too keen on playing Diana as her story became darker, telling the New Yorker in 2021 that they're "grateful" they don't have to film her tragic death scene. "I know how attached I feel to the person I played," Emma admitted. "I feel very protective over her."

Who is Emma Corrin and where is she now?

Emma Corrin has become one of the UK's most famous young actors, having previously appeared in films including My Policeman and Lady Chatterly's Lover. They will also be appearing in new FX film A Murder at the End of the World and Deadpool 3. 

Born in Tunbridge Wells on December 13 1995, the Kent native found thei love for the performing arts while studying at the private Woldingham School for girls in Surrey. They took a gap year after graduating to complete a Shakespeare course at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), before heading to the University of Bristol to study drama. Emma decided to leave Bristol, however, after discovering its course was too focused on theory. 

Instead, they moved to Cambridge in 2015 to pursue a degree in Education, English, Drama, and the Arts, where they ended up feeling more comfortable despite having "never been the academic one" in their friendship group.  

Emma made their film debut in 2017, playing Mica in the 40-minute-long digital flick, Cesare. They also starred in the ITV mystery series, Grantchester, before landing a more prominent role as nightclub dancer Esme Winikus in the US TV series, Pennyworth. 

Emma first auditioned for the role of Princess Diana in The Crown when they were studying at Cambridge, after being asked to run lines for a “chemistry” reading to find the right actor to play Camilla Parker Bowles. After being impressed with their reading of Diana's lines, The Crown's creator, Peter Morgan, asked them to go away and work on developing the character further. 

Eight months later, they received a call asking if they would like to audition for the role of Princess Diana in The Crown Season four - and this time, for real. As for how they prepared, Emma told Glamour in November 2020 that they 'only watched the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words.'

"I didn’t watch another documentary. I don’t think I would have got the part without it," they said. "Honestly. I watched it before I did any audition. I haven’t watched it in about a year, but it still comes up every day on my Netflix: 'You wanna watch this again?' It’s a phenomenal thing, and honestly, for research purposes, you don’t need much more, because it is her, talking about her life, overlaid with footage. It’s everything." 

Emma received critical acclaim for their performance as Princess Diana in The Crown Season four, winning a Golden Globe and gaining nominations for several other awards. 

For more details on The Crown, we've revealed the real events behind the series - including where Mohamed Al-Fayed is now, where Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones is now and when Charles and Camilla got married.