The Crown has revealed which actors will be playing the younger versions of Kate Middleton and Prince William. Photo / Getty Images
The Crown has revealed which actors will be playing the younger versions of Kate Middleton and Prince William. Photo / Getty Images
The Crown has cast an unknown actress for one of its most coveted roles, that of a young Kate Middleton.
Meg Bellamy, 19, will portray the future Duchess in the sixth and final season of the Netflix drama, which will in part track Kate and William's initial courtship at St Andrews University.
Bellamy won the role after she submitted a self-taped audition video following a casting call posted to social media. The Crown will be her first professional acting gig, having previously only appeared in amateur stage and film productions, according to Deadline.
'The Crown' has found its Prince William & Kate Middleton for S6 in three screen newcomers:
Kampa, 15, made his professional stage debut three years ago in The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole 13 & ¾, in which he played the title role. McVey, 21, is a newcomer, having graduated from the Drama Centre London last year.
Kampa will have the challenge of embodying William during the difficult era of his mother Princess Diana's sudden death in 1997.
Kate and William met at St Andrews while she studied art history and he studied geography. Their romantic liaisons were a favourite of the UK tabloid press who unkindly dubbed Middleton "Waity Katie" as they dated for many years.
The Crown won't chart their story as far as the 2011 wedding at Westminster Abbey, with the narrative slated to end in the early 2000s.
The Peter Morgan-created drama was to end with the fifth season but the British writer was persuaded to add one more chapter. The series will now culminate around the time of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret's deaths in 2002.
Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 5 of The Crown. Photo / Netflix
The fifth season will premiere on Netflix in November this year and will focus on the early to mid-1990s, most notably on the high-profile divorces of Prince Charles and Princess Diana as well as Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
Diana's dramatic schism from the royal family makes for rich TV storytelling as every moment and grievance was played out in the press.
The Crown changes up its cast every two seasons as the characters age up and for the fifth and sixth seasons it includes Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Dominic West as Charles, Lesley Manville as Margaret, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles and Jonny Lee Miller as John Major.
