Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki to play Princess Diana in The Crown

You’d have to do a double take to distinguish Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki from the real Princess Diana.

You’d have to do a double take to distinguish Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki from the real Princess Diana.

First look images of the 30-year-old as the late British princess show more than a striking resemblance between the pair and set the bar high ahead of the fifth season of hit TV series, The Crown.

Dominic West will play Prince Charles in the royal drama.

Elizabeth Debicki as Prince Diana in season five of The Crown. Picture: Netflix

Dominic West as Prince Charles in season five of The Crown. Picture: Netflix

The pair take over from Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin, who depicted earlier stages of the couple’s troubled relationship.

Imelda Staunton also joins The Crown, taking over from Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth. Claire Foy played the Queen in seasons one and two.

Season four of The Crown covered 1979 to 1990 and ended with Queen Elizabeth forbidding Prince Charles from divorcing then Princess Diana.

Elizabeth Debicki at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. Picture: Kurt Krieger/Corbis via Getty Images)

Princess Diana at Kensington Palace. Picture: Tim Graham/ Getty

West and Debicki will play the royals during the rockiest part of their marriage and their divorce in 1996.

Diana died tragically at the age of 36 in a Paris car accident in 1997.

Also joining The Crown are Jonathan Pryce as Prince Phillip, taking over from Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies from previous seasons.

Johnny Lee Miller too will be seen as former British Prime Minister John Major.

Debicki is one of our top international acting exports, having graduated in drama studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2010 and gone on to star in Hollywood films including The Great Gatsby, Guardians of the Galaxy and Peter Rabbit.

Meanwhile, other Australians to have played Princess Diana on the big and small screen include Naomi Watts in feature film, Diana, in 2013 and Genevieve O’Riley in 2007 docudrama, Diana: Last Days of a Princess.