Meghan Markle runs out of series. The Duchess of Sussex was preparing Pearl, animated fiction for children that was going to air on Netflix and that, as confirmed by the platform, has been canceled.
The explanation is brief: “We have decided to stop the development of several projects, including Markle’s series, as part of the strategy in terms of animated series,” reads the statement issued by Netflix. For its part, Archewell, the producer of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, has not given more data or made statements about it.
However, one of the main reasons for this change of plans may have to do with the delicate situation facing Netflix. A few days ago, the company announced that it had lost 200,000 users in the first quarter of 2022 with the consequent collapse in the stock market.
This crisis could explain the cancellation of Pearl, the name by which Meghan herself was known as a child, and which was to be the title of this animated fiction focused on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl.
“Like so many other girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome the challenges of everyday life,” Markle said last summer, when the project was announced, which she was going to executive produce with David Furnish, Elton John’s husband.
She added: “I’m thrilled that Archewell Productions, along with the powerful Netflix platform and these incredible producers, are creating this new animated series, which pays tribute to women who have been extraordinary throughout history.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed an agreement – estimated at $100 million – with Netflix in September 2020.
According to the contract, they would act as creators and producers of various content focused, especially, on the education of the little ones. Although it is now known that one of these projects has been frozen, the documentary series about the Invictus Games, a sports competition for the war-wounded founded by Harry, goes ahead and will face the most recent edition, which ended a few days ago. The first audiovisual project of his wife, Meghan Markle, has not suffered the same fate.
