The Crown Season 4 Brings Shooting End Date Forward Over Coronavirus Fears

With coronavirus sweeping the nation, the TV industry is one industry that has been greatly affected. The latest victim is The Crown, as Netflix’s royal drama has become the latest show to cease production and wrap early amid coronavirus fears.

With filming for the upcoming fourth season underway in the UK, Deadline had reported that the show was one of the few to adopt the “keep calm and carry on’ spirit and remain filming in order to “tie up loose ends” left for the story.

But with more and more businesses closing up shop while the government advises the UK population to work from home and avoid social gatherings to stop the spread of virus, the team on The Crown made the difficult decision to pull the final shoot day forward to allow the cast and crew to self-isolate.

A spokesperson for the show told Metro.co.uk: ‘The Crown has now completed principal photography on season four having pulled the final shoot date forward by a few days.’

Expected to be released later in 2020, the new season will see Olivia Colman return for her final outing as Queen Elizabeth II. Meanwhile, a whole cast of new royals will also be on the scene, with Emma Corrin joining the cast as Princess Diana, while Josh O’Connor returns as Prince Charles.

It’s not the first Netflix show to give up production, with shooting on The Witcher season two and the fifth season of Lucifer also coming to a halt according to TVLine.

Even the BBC has been affected, being forced to stop production on its original BBC Studios continuing dramas. Sadly, that means no more EastEnders, with the long-running soap reducing its broadcasts to ration out the episodes.

“In light of the spread of Covid-19, filming on EastEnders will be postponed until further notice,’ the official account tweeted. “We have also taken the decision to reduce the amount of episodes we broadcast each week to two. Episodes will now air on Mondays, 8pm and Tuesdays, 7.30pm.”