The Real Reason Princess Margaret's Children Aren't Seen In The Crown
Though it can sometimes seem like it's moving at a slow pace, The Crown covers a whole lot of ground in a remarkably short time frame. Each season of the Netflix drama covers roughly a decade of the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, beginning with her learning the ropes of ruling in the first season, eventually catching up to the days of Prince Charles' love triangle with Diana Spencer and Camila Parker-Bowles in the fourth.
For all of The Crown's British history, political maneuvering, and petty sibling squabbling, they still leave quite a bit out. In the first season, Princess Margaret, younger sister to Elizabeth, is arguably a second lead. As the series progresses, much like in the real-life public eye, Margaret begins to play a lesser role as Elizabeth has children, and, by the fourth season, grandchildren of her own.
If the series was your introduction into the inner workings of the royal family, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that Margaret had children of her own. The late princess actually had two children, but they do not appear in The Crown, and are hardly even mentioned. Here's why.
Fans were quick to notice Princess Margaret's missing children
In the chronology established in The Crown, the real-life Princess Margaret (pictured above with Sarah Ferguson, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry) would have had her first child during the show's second season. This storyline, however, is completely skipped, and fans were quick to notice. One user on Reddit had a simple question: Why?
"It's not important," one user responded. "Elizabeth has four potential heirs, which means [Margaret's] kids are so far down the pecking order it renders them irrelevant as far as The Crown is concerned." While the original question was about Margaret's role in season two, another user pointed out that much of her role in season four revolves around the character's loneliness, and had her children been present in the series, it would have been harder to sell that arc for the character.
Margaret isn't the only character to suffer a fate like this in The Crown; Princess Anne, often ranked as a fan-favorite character, had an entire marriage and divorce rendered to a throw-away line in season four. While it's possible we could see more in coming seasons, the show has made it fairly clear that its focus is the titular Crown, meaning the Queen and those that will eventually reign over the United Kingdom. When Prince William's time comes to take the throne, don't expect The Crown to say too much about Archie.