The film, staged outdoors on a painted set, was planned as a realistic (albeit highly condensed) reproduction of the coronation; Urban procured various research details in England, while Méliès, at his French studio, cast his actors based on their resemblances to the real-life dignitaries at the ceremony.

[4] The French filmmaker Méliès had already achieved acclaim with his innovative films Cinderella (1899) and Joan of Arc (1900),[5] and in the summer of 1902 he was completing work on what would become his biggest success, the internationally popular A Trip to the Moon (1902).

[6] He had already filmed various "reconstructed newsreels," staged re-enactments of current events, and the year 1902 marked his three last works in the genre: The Eruption of Mount Pelee, The Catastrophe of the Balloon "Le Pax", and the last and most complex of all, The Coronation of Edward VII.

[2]Urban obtained a detailed description of the ceremony's rituals from the royal protocol officer and passed it along to Méliès, as well as some photographs of the Abbey[7] and various pieces of advice, such as: The make-ups or impersonations must be perfect.

[9] According to his recollections late in life, the British film pioneer George Albert Smith, a colleague of Urban's, traveled to Méliès's studio to operate the camera.

[7] The production used about forty actors in all, chosen for their similarity to the figures they portrayed; Queen Alexandra was played by an actress from the Théâtre du Châtelet,[7] and King Edward by a wash-house attendant from Le Kremlin-Bicêtre.

[2] Méliès, never one to waste scenery, reused the thrones and armchairs built for the set in numerous later films, including Tunnelling the English Channel and The Palace of the Arabian Nights.

[14] Frederick Treves, supported by Joseph Lister, successfully treated the illness using the then-unconventional method of draining the abscess through an incision, and Edward's health began to return by the next day.

[7] Urban set up a camera at the actual coronation to capture the arrival and departure of the carriages before and after the ceremony, adding these shots to the beginning and end of Méliès's film to increase its verisimilitude.

The Edward VII they'll show you solemnly on his throne, the Queen Alexandra, gracious and sober who will take her place at his side, will be walk-on players crowned at Montreuil, in a fake hall, decorated with painted canvas and furnished with cardboard armchairs!

[17] One American critic commented: It seems almost incredible to believe that the photographer's art has reached a point where the detail work of such an important event as the coronation of a king can be so faithfully reproduced … For instance even the fibre of the beautiful and delicate draperies, the handsome costumes of the ladies, the elaborate decorations, are easily discernible.

[17]Méliès used his share of the considerable profits from The Coronation of Edward VII to produce two additional major films the same year: Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants.