The Crown Will Officially End After Season 5

My favorite thing to do amidst all the current royal drama is think about how much more we'll learn when it finally gets portrayed on The Crown, but creator Peter Morgan just went and broke my heart. While announcing the long-rumored casting of Imelda Staunton as the next iteration of Queen Elizabeth following Olivia Colman, Netflix also revealed that the fifth season of The Crown will be its last.

Currently, the show is filming season four with the second generation of cast members, including Colman. While it was originally thought that Staunton would come on for seasons five and six, Morgan is cutting the series short.

"Now that we have begun work on the stories for S5 it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop," he said in a statement, according to a tweet from Netflix.

This news doesn't dull Staunton's excitement for taking on the iconic role.

"I have loved watching The Crown from the very start," she said in a statement. "As an actor it was a joy to see how both Claire Foy and Olivia Colman brought something special and unique to Peter Morgan's scripts. I am genuinely honored to be joining such an exceptional creative team and to be taking The Crown to its conclusion."

We should have seen this coming, since Morgan previously said he prefers some distance between himself and the royal time periods he brings to life.

"I feel uncomfortable writing about events within a certain time period. I think there’s a certain amount of time within which, if you write about it, what you do instantly becomes journalistic. Because it’s too close to the moment," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. "If you wait a certain amount of time, if you allow fifteen or twenty years, basically a generation, between you and [the events] then you can write about it somewhat freely as drama. Let’s wait twenty years and see what there is to say about Meghan Markle."

Okay, I'll set my alarm. See you in 2040, Morgan.