Netflix have some cash to throw around – a $5 billion budget to spend on original programming in 2016 alone – but projects don’t come much bigger than their new series The Crown.

The first season budget alone is around the $100 million mark, and in the pipeline is six full seasons comprising 60 episodes.

Initially at least the series has been written and directed by Peter Morgan, who was involved with The Queen movie back in 2006, with more from Wired:

The first season takes place in the 1940s, as Elizabeth (Claire Foy, from Wolf Hall) prepares to marry Prince Philip (Matt Smith, ofDoctor Who) and assume her eventual role as Queen. The cast also includes Jared Harris as King George VI, Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret, and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill.

It’s a significant investment, especially given that the series debuts during the same year as the tonally different but similarly exorbitant The Get Down. But historical dramas do well in the United Kingdom, and the Royal Wedding and subsequent royal births ignited the interest of Anglophiles across America. So Netflix has that going for it, plus the incredibly compelling life of the longest-reigning monarch in England’s history. The 10-episode first season of The Crown debuts on the streaming service Nov. 4.

Not really my cup of tea, but here’s the trailer anyway:

[source:wired]