How 'The Crown' will deal with Queen Elizabeth II's death
- Queen Elizabeth II has died, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday.
- "The Crown" creator said the cast and crew will pay respect to the monarch by stopping production.
"The Crown" creator Peter Morgan said that filming for the series will be paused in response to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The British monarch, whose 70-year reign is the inspiration for the Netflix series, died on Thursday at the age of 96, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
Morgan, who adapted "The Crown" from a play into an Emmy-winning hit show, paid his respects to the Queen in a statement to Deadline.
"'The Crown' is a love letter to [the Queen] and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect," creator Peter Morgan said. "I expect we will stop filming out of respect too."
Earlier this week, Lesley Manville, who stars in the show as Princess Margaret, said on BBC's "The One Show" that filming for the sixth season was about to start.
It is unclear whether the fifth season of "The Crown," which was set to premiere in November, will be delayed.
"The Crown" director Stephen Daldry told Deadline in 2016, when the series first premiered, that there was a plan in place if the Queen died since the show focuses on key moments in the monarch's life from her ascension to the throne. He said that the show would stop production for a respectable period of time.
"None of us know when that time will come but it would be right and proper to show respect to the Queen. It would be a simple tribute and a mark of respect. She's a global figure and it's what we should do," he said. "She's an extraordinary woman and people will be upset."
Over the course of the Netflix series, Queen Elizabeth has been played by three different actors: Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton.
Staunton is the latest to play the British queen in the upcoming fifth and sixth seasons.