The Crown’s Dominic West on Son Not Returning as Prince William

The Crown’s Dominic West wasn’t too keen on having his son Senan West continue his role as Prince William because of one particular scene.

“I didn’t really fancy doing the scene at Balmoral, telling a boy his mother has died,” Dominic, 54, told the Radio Times in a Monday, December 4 interview, per The Times. “They invited Senan back because he did such a good job, and he was great, but I did slightly balk at that. It was unfair of me because he did want to do it, but I wouldn’t have fancied that, to be honest.”

(The Wire star shares daughter Martha with ex-girlfriend Polly Astor and son Senan, daughters Dora, Francis and Christabel with wife Catherine FitzGerald.)

Dominic joined the show as Prince Charles in season 5 alongside 15-year-old son Senan in November 2022. While Dominic did return for season 6, Rufus Kampa replaced Senan as William for part 1 of the Netflix series, which premiered in November. Ed McVey will take over the role for part 2, which is set drop on December 14. The final season focuses on Princess Diana’s life after her divorce from Prince Charles and her death in 1997. It will also follow the romance between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Ahead of the premiere of part one, showrunner Peter Morgan shared that the series has a “responsibility” to depict Princess Diana’s tragic death in the “right” way.

“We take the responsibility to get all of it right and this is just one particular part of the story in the last 20 to 30 years,” Morgan, 60, told Entertainment Tonight in November. “The death of Diana, it still looms large. And there are still obviously people, her sons, but it’s not just that. It’s the job of a dramatist to tell the story of kings and queens.”

Morgan noted that he hopes that they do the family justice, as some members of the royal family have admitted to watching the Netflix series, including Prince Harry.

“If they watch it, I hope they think it’s fair and responsible because that’s what we’ve tried to be,” he added.

The Crown, which debuted on Netflix in 2016, is an anthology series based on the British royal family and has garnered some criticism for its inaccuracies over the years.

In October 2022, Dame Judi Dench slammed The Crown’s portrayal of the royal family in season 5.

Related: The Crown’s Behind-the-Scenes Controversies Through the Years

Down with The Crown? The Netflix series has sparked controversy over the years for its embellished tales of the British royal family — and the behind-the-scenes drama is just as juicy as the Emmy-winning story lines. Season 1 of the drama started streaming in 2016 with Claire Foy as the late Queen Elizabeth II and […]

“The closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism,” Dench, 88, wrote in an October 2022 open letter to The Times. “No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged.”

Dench requested that Netflix add a disclaimer to each episode clarifying that the show is fictionalized, which she feels is necessary after Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.

Following her statement, Netflix added a disclaimer to the show’s official web page that reads: “Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the political and personal events that shaped her reign.”