Overview
When season five of The Crown arrives in 2022, it'll continue to explore a part of royal history that's been talked about for decades: the difficult marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles. As part of the show's latest change of cast, Tenet's Elizabeth Debicki will play the former, The Pursuit of Love's Dominic West will step into the latter's shoes, and the acclaimed Netflix series will tease out the details — but, on the big screen, the Kristen Stewart-starring Spencer will get there first.
This isn't quite a twin films situation — where two movies about the same or similar topics appear around the same time, like Armageddon and Deep Impact in the 90s, Finding Nemo and Shark Tale in the animation space, and the two Fyre Festival documentaries in 2019 — but only because The Crown is a TV show and Spencer is a feature. Otherwise, there will indeed be two different takes on the tale hitting screens small and large in short succession.
In Spencer's case, it hails from Pablo Larraín, the Chilean filmmaker who has never made a bad film — see: his recent masterpiece Ema — and also directed Natalie Portman to an Oscar nomination in Jackie. In both of these movies, he's honed in on complex women in difficult situations, one fictional and one factual, and shown a stunning eye for emotion and detail. And, based on the just-dropped teaser trailer for Spencer, that isn't going away in his next feature.
After last appearing in films as varied as Underwater, Charlie's Angels, Seberg and Happiest Season, Stewart plays Diana in 1991, at a time where her relationship with Prince Charles (Jack Farthing, Official Secrets) is struggling, but the royal family has gathered together for Christmas. Spencer focuses on a few specific days, as rumours swirl about affairs and divorce, and Diana attempts to navigate the obviously complicated situation.
Timothy Spall (The Party), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Sean Harris (Mission: Impossible — Fallout) also co-star, and the film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September ahead of its US release in November. When it'll hit Down Under hasn't yet been announced.
Check out the trailer below:
Spencer releases in US cinemas on November 5, and doesn't currently have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when one is announced.