Netflix’s historical drama , created and written by , has received its fair share of critiques and critical acclaim, including 18 Emmy nominations for its sixth and final season. Yet the one group of individuals who haven’t publicly voiced their opinion are the subject of the show itself: the royal family. “I’ve heard that they love it, I’ve heard that they hate it, I’ve heard everything,” Morgan tells .
“I’ve decided that until one of the members of the royal family tells me directly, in person, I won’t believe anything that I hear.” Here, the showrunner talks about the difficulty of executing a prestige television show for six years and why there are still royal stories he might want to tell. What television has become is so much bigger than any of us could have predicted.
I went into this almost without having ever really stress-tested how hard it is and how much work it is, and I was shocked, actually. But then, of course, it makes perfect sense. That thing that traditionally had been the $15 to $25 million movie is now that level [of television].
The way in which we made several of the movies that I’d done prior, whether it’s or or , those movies were made no differently in terms of scale than an episode of . And then suddenly you’re committed to making 10 of those a season. And then another season of 10 to follow straight after.
So it was both more intense and harder work than I predicted, and I think it’s only because the material was such.