'The Crown' first-look photos: Elizabeth Debicki image of Diana in iconic backless dress

Netflix has revealed a series of new images from the upcoming fifth season of The Crown, including a lonely still of Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki) in one of her most iconic outfits.

The streaming platform’s hit series, based on the history of the Royal Family throughout the 20th century, features a brand-new cast as the characters move into the next time period of the early Nineties.

In the images released on Twitter, Debicki (who takes over from Emma Corrin as Diana in season four) is seen wearing a blue sparkly dress as she heads into what looks like a glamorous evening engagement with her shoulders hunched, eyes lowered and head bowed.

The evening in question was one of the late Princess of Wales’ last events before her untimely death in 1997.

In January 2022, Debicki, 32, was photographed during filming at New York’s Lyceum Theatre, which stands in for London’s Royal Albert Hall, where Diana attended a Royal Gala performance of Swan Lake on 3 June, 1997 — just a few months before her tragic death on 31 August.

However, it appears as though the show's producers chose a different dress to the one she actually wore on the night for filming the season five episode.

Read more: Princess Diana’s style is a key part of her legacy, even after 25 years

At the Royal Gala event, Diana famously wore a turquoise Jacques Azagury dress with a glistening diamond and pearl necklace and earring set. The necklace – known as the Swan Lake necklace – was sold at auction for $12 million in 2017.

But in the photos from the set of The Crown, Debicki is seen in a version of a similar Catherine Walker halter-neck dress worn by the late royal at a party a few years prior, and without the famous necklace that became so synonymous with the event.

The sparkling halter-neck style, with a ruched waist, by one of Diana’s go-to designers was worn by the late People’s Princess at a dinner hosted by Vanity Fair magazine at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, London, in 1995.

Read more: Kate continues honouring Diana with another very similar outfit

The annual Serpentine dinner became standout iconic moments for the late royal, with just the year previous being the year she wore the famous ‘Revenge Dress’ – a smouldering off-the-shoulder black dress – as the interview in which the then Prince Charles admitted his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles was aired.

Read more: Princess Diana 'knew the power of her clothes' says designer behind the royal's 'retirement' suit

The newly released images also show a picture of Charles (Dominic West) and Camilla (Olivia Williams) cosying up together to watch fireworks together, and several other moments from the upcoming fifth series.

Netflix released the images on Twitter, with the caption: "New season, new decade, new cast.

"Here's your first look at S5 of The Crown, coming 9 November."

West, who takes over from Josh O’Connor as Charles, and Williams, who takes the mantle of Camilla from Emerald Fennell are joined by Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip and Lesley Manville, 65, as Princess Margaret.

The fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown — the final two in the award-winning series — are expected to cover the lives of the Royal Family from the mid-1990s through to the early 2000s, but stopped filming this year out of respect for the Queen, following her death in September.

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