Why You Didn't See Charles And Diana's Wedding In The Crown

Season 4 of The Crown is finally on Netflix, which means the Princess Diana era has arrived. And you better believe the show recreated some of her fashion moments, including her elaborate wedding dress. However, The Crown didn't show any part of the actual wedding. All the viewers got was a shot of Emma Corrin, who plays the late Princess of Wales, walking into the ceremony with a super long train behind her. 

Excluding the wedding threw off some fans, with one person tweeting, "I even repeated the same episode as i thought i missed 'the wedding.' Where is the freaking wedding?!" Someone else remarked, "They really built up the wedding in the trailers to only show us the back of the dress for a few seconds." A different fan shared similar sentiments, tweeting, "I can't believe I patiently awaited the crown to see all the pomp and pageantry for princess Diana wedding and them get and show a 15 second back view of the dress." Another viewer observed, "They really spent 600 hours replicating that wedding dress and for what? I feel cheated given the build up in the trailers." 

On the flip side, some fans are more than fine with this move. "I, for one, am glad The Crown doesn't show the royal wedding," one person admitted. "We lived that for months in the 80s. And it's the least interesting part of the story." Why was such a major moment in royal history excluded from the show? There's a simple explanation for it.

The Crown only reenacts moments that 'further the plot'

"We never recreate things just for the sake of re-creating them," Emma Corrin told The Hollywood Reporter. "I think if we do recreate a scene — like the engagement scene, for instance, when they do the announcement — it has to be because it's linked to something that the characters are going through. It has to be part of the story." Summing it up, The Crown will only reenact moments the world has already seen if it will "further the plot." Corrin went on to note that anyone who wants to revisit the actual wedding "can YouTube it," so she does not see "any point in us re-creating it."

Josh O'Connor, who plays Prince Charles on The Crown, added, "That's why The Crown is so good. [Series creator] Peter Morgan isn't interested in showing you the wedding because, yeah, Emma's right, you just go on YouTube and you can watch it." Additionally, the actor acknowledged that there is "more license to create and fictionalize" in a scene that people haven't seen before, which makes sense. Even so, it is logical to show certain well-documented events in order to show viewers "this is where we are" instead of straight up telling them by posting dates or captions on screen. O'Connor explained that Morgan "basically signposts [the show's timeline] using historical events" like the engagement interview or the lead-in to the wedding.

All roads lead back to Queen Elizabeth on The Crown

Even though many The Crown fans wanted to see Prince Charles and Princess Diana exchange their vows on the show, it does detract from the show's central focus, Queen Elizabeth II. Emma Corrin told The Hollywood Reporter, "They don't follow any plotlines that don't directly link to the Crown, which is really interesting." She explained that The Crown's creator Peter Morgan wants every storyline on the series to "feed back to the queen," so the show is not going to cover everything that happened in the royal family at that time. "Even Diana's plotline, it's all about what she's doing and the effect that that's having on the queen," Corrin said. "That's why it's called The Crown."

That is logical, but as Netflix shared on Twitter, it took a lot of time and effort to replicate Princess Diana's wedding dress only for a super quick shot of Corrin walking into the church. "It took so many fittings just to make it, which was an experience," the actor revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. "I'm so bad at fittings. I think everyone hated me by the end." She also said the experience of watching "the dress come to life" was "very magical," adding that "it kind of felt like Cinderella when they're waving the wand and she's being turned into this incredible princess." Which is why so many viewers wanted to see the dress get more screen time. Nevertheless, it makes sense why the wedding was excluded.