A Movie About Harry & Meghan's Royal Exit Is In The Works

When it comes to telling stories about royal couples, trilogies are de rigueur. PBS ran three seasons of Victoria; Netflix had three A Christmas Prince movies. When Lifetime created Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance and then followed it up with Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal, viewers figured a third movie would eventually follow. But then the real-life Harry and Meghan did something no one expected: They stopped being royal! But no matter — wherever the story goes, the films will follow. So, when will Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace be on Lifetime? You better believe it's already in the works.

Apparently, Lifetime execs sadly did not realize the potential of sequels when the initial Harry & Meghan movie was made back in 2018. I say that because there was an entire recasting between the first two films. The first was released ahead of the royal wedding, featuring actors Murray Fraser (Victoria) and Parisa Fitz-Henley (Luke Cage) in the titular roles. The second covered the couple's first year of marriage and first child and it starred Charlie Field (Poldark) and Tiffany Smith (NCIS: Los Angeles) as the royal couple.

From the sound of it, none of those actors are expected to return to reprise their roles. Lifetime's announcement for Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace stated that "casting is currently underway" for the new film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lifetime's press release reported this third Harry & Meghan film will center on "recent events." The film will, one assumes, backtrack slightly from some of the fictionalized claims from the second movie, which portrayed Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan as friends, and the royal family as doing their best to be welcoming. According to the press release, this new film will "reveal what really happened inside the palace that drove Harry and Meghan to leave everything behind in order to make a future for themselves and their son Archie." The Hollywood Reporter also reported the film will cover the spats between Meghan and Kate. Reportedly, it will also dramatize the falling out between Harry and his older brother, Prince William, and the disintegration of relationship between Harry and his father, Prince Charles.

Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace is slated to air on Lifetime sometime in the second half of 2021.