Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docuseries may not air this year as previously scheduled. The release date of the much-anticipated series of the former royals has been postponed.
The change in the release comes after the streaming giant faced incredible backlash from critics about the latest season of “The Crown,” which is yet to be released. Sir John Major, a former UK Prime Minister, called the series a damaging, malicious, and fictitious piece of work. The criticism is due to revelations in the series’ first episode of the fifth season, which alleges that King Charles III, still Prince Charles at the time, and the former prime minister had a conversation about plotting to oust Queen Elizabeth II. Fiction or truth?
Other people also criticized the show’s depiction of a storyline where Prince Philips had an affair with Penny Knatchbull, saying the storyline was “distasteful.”
The critics rattled Netflix, and the company decided to postpone the premiere of Harry and Meghan’s documentary until 2023.
The documentary series, which is still untitled, is a joint production between Netflix and Harry and Meghan’s production company, Archewell Productions. According to sources, the film was to air a month after “The Crown,” as Netflix wanted to do a royal “double feature.”
However, Meghan Markle may be distancing herself from the Netflix documentary, saying that the documentary might not depict their story as she intended it to and that its direction was in the hands of Liz Garbus, a seasoned filmmaker, and director.
Meghan said they trust Liz Garbus to tell their story even though that might mean the story will not come out as they wanted it to. She said the director might tell the story through her own eyes.
Meghan said that although her husband, Prince Harry, had never worked in the film industry, she was excited to be back in the industry and that it was amazing to be surrounded by a lot of creative energy and see people working together and sharing their different points of view.
The Duke and Duchess have been working on their docuseries as part of a $100 million deal with Netflix. Earlier this year, a film crew from Netflix filmed the couple’s arrival at the Invictus games.
Despite the docuseries push back to next year, industry sources say that the series will premier this year as planned and that there had been no change to the streaming dates. So we’ll see what happens.
The rumors come a few weeks after reports said that the Sussexes wanted to do some last-minute edits to the documentary to soften the story after Queen Elizabeth’s death.
The fifth season of “The Crown,” which evoked outrage that may have spooked Netflix execs, is set to cover the years between 1991 to 1997 and will include the events leading up to the divorce between King Charles and Princess Diana, including the late Diana’s 1995 interview with BBC’s Panorama. It could have some unpleasant things to say about the Queen Consort Camilla.
