Kristen Stewart Will Play Princess Diana In a New Movie

The Crown won't be our only chance to see Princess Diana portrayed onscreen soon — according to Deadline, Kristen Stewart has been cast as the late princess in an upcoming film which focuses on her decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles.

Deadline reports the movie, titled Spencer, will take place over three days during which Princess Diana spent Christmas at Queen Elizabeth's Sandringham estate in the 1990s. Spencer will go into production early next year, and will be directed by Pablo Larraín, who also directed 2016's Jackie, which starred Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy.

"Kristen is one of the great actors around today," Larraín said in a statement to Deadline. “To do this well, you need something very important in film, which is mystery. Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need. The combination of those elements made me think of her. The way she responded to the script and how she is approaching the character, it’s very beautiful to see. I think she’s going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time. She is this force of nature.

Of Princess Diana, he added, "Diana is such a powerful icon, where millions and millions of people, not just women, but many people around the world felt empathy toward her in her life. We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She’s a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles."

Later this year, Netflix will drop season four of The Crown, which introduces Princess Diana for the first time in the show. Actor Josh O'Connor, who plays Prince Charles on the show, previously told InStyle, "A lot of season four is about Charles and Diana, and what's exciting about it, and what [creator] Peter Morgan does so well, is that he tells the story that we don't know and he goes behind the closed doors. It kind of feels like a fresh story, and I think it's going to be the best season yet, in my opinion."