The Trailer for 'The Crown' Season 4 Deconstructs the Fairytale of Princess Diana

The trailer for The Crown Season 4 is here and promises fans what they've been waiting for: The story of Charles and Diana.

The first three seasons of The Crown may have featured two different casts, but the series had a singular focus: The life of Queen Elizabeth II. And whether the queen was played by Claire Foy or Olivia Colman, the story was ultimately geared to her point of view and cast her position in a sympathetic light.

That may well change significantly in Season 4, as the lavish period drama reaches the point that many of its fans have been eagerly awaiting since its first episode: The arrival of one Lady Diana Spencer.

Many Anglophiles of a certain age (and, admittedly, I am one of those), grew up with Princess Diana as our ideal of a fairytale princess. She married a real-life prince, would one day become Queen of England, and her wedding day, complete with massive train and poufy-sleeved dress, shaped the idea of what that ceremony should look like for a generation of women. But if the trailer for Season 4 is anything to go by, The Crown is set to deconstruct many of those dreams - and expose the tragedy that lay underneath.

The generally tragic feel that seems to permeate this season may just be because we're all older now - we know fairy tales aren't real, and we all remember the ending of Diana's magical story. We watched it happen: The affairs, the public humiliation, the divorce, and scandal. The terrible crash that ultimately ended her life in 1997. (I don't know about y'all but I still remember exactly where I was when I heard she died.) But it's also because we know more than we did then, about how difficult Diana's position was, about the rocky relationship between Charles, his parents, and the (first) woman he married.

Watch the trailer for yourselves below.