A User’s Guide to Tabloid Noise on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix Timeline

Six months later Meghan Markle and Prince Harry officially ending their time as senior royals, they announced that they were setting up a production company and signed a lucrative contract with Netflix. Last week, the streaming giant announced that it is picking up a second project from Archewell Productions, a family-focused animated series titled tentatively Pearl, Executive produced by Meghan and David Furnish, husband of Harry’s longtime friend Elton John.

Although the couple first announced Archewell Productions in September 2020, it looks like the plan for Pearl has been going on for much longer. On Sunday, Telegraph reported that Meghan and Furnish have begun planning an animated TV series in early 2018. Theo Page six, the project was first introduced to Netflix before she and Harry announced their departure from the royal family.

The show’s timeline is garnering headlines because of a comment from Harry during the couple’s March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. Harry said that the couple’s premium deals with Spotify and Netflix were “never part of the plan” until they left their royal roles. “We have no plans,” he added. “It was suggested by someone else, at a time when my family really cut my finances, and I had to be able to keep us safe.”

In this case, Harry could have been referring to the overall deals they signed with Netflix, meaning the streamer paid upfront to own the ideas. When the deal is announced, New York Times estimated that it could be worth up to $100 million.

When the deal was signed, Meghan and Harry were already involved in Hollywood projects. Harry and Oprah announced that they are working on an Apple+ series on mental health in April 2019, although the project wasn’t released until May 2021. In April 2020Disney+ released a documentary narrated by Meghan Meghan Elephant. Because it was staged and filmed while she was still a working royal, there was no fee for her and Disney donated to Elephants Without Borders instead on her behalf.

But its deal with Netflix, and its subsequent partnership with Spotify, is a sign that, like the Obamas, they are interested in becoming serious players in the content space. Although the couple searched a potential base in North America long before they managed to leave the royal family, it is unclear when they decided to start a production company. Archewell Productions was trademarked in January 2021, and the couple exploited Ben Browning lead the studio in March 2021.

Furnish was a guest at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, where John performed. In August 2019, Meghan and Harry went on vacation together Archie Mountbatten-Windsor to Furnish and John’s residence in the south of France. When their private jet travel became the subject of controversy, John publicly defended the couple.

According to the Telegraph, A spokesperson for the couple explained that any meeting would be limited to the idea of ​​an animated series, when it’s just a one-off project. Last fall, the newspaper also reported that the couple had held a series of meetings with the now-defunct streaming service Quibi in 2019.

In the months following their wedding in May 2018, Meghan worked on a series of one-off projects, including a fundraising cookbook for Grenfell Tower survivors, a British publication. Vogue attracted the attention of women activists and a capsule clothing collection benefited her patronage SmartWorks.

Although her projects are well received outside the palace walls, Meghan’s efforts are said to have caused tension behind the scenes. In The Battle of the Brothers, royal expert Robert Lacey declare that Prince William not satisfied with the problem Vogue Magazine. Last year, a senior royal source told Vanity Fair that some experienced courtiers advised her to slow down.

‘You can say what you want about Meghan, but she works incredibly hard,’ said a source who has worked with the couple. VF “The problem is that she and Harry tend to incubate big projects over dinner and expect them to be done within a few days. Meghan has great ideas, but she’s always in a hurry and assistants have to sit down and explain that big platforms and projects take thought, time and commitment, they can’t be rushed. “.

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