Netflix isn’t willing to say never to Meghan Markle.
Netflix’s scripted chief in the U.K., Manda Levin, was asked about reports that the ex-royal was in talks to join Season 3 of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series The Gentlemen, according to People. Royal commentator Bronte McCoy reported last Friday that the star was up for a role that would occupy her time during Markle and Prince Harry’s “extended” return to the U.K.
Deadline later reported that the unspecified role was in Ritchie’s series—and by Saturday, royal reporter (and Daily Beast co-founder) Tina Brown reported that the casting had been “withdrawn.”
“The backlash in the U.K. was so intense, it became untenable to go forward. This does not bode well for Meghan’s acting comeback in the U.K.,” Brown reported.
On Wednesday, Levin added even more intrigue to the saga, telling a crowd at the Edinburgh TV Festival, “All bets are off.”
The Gentlemen stars Theo James and Kaya Scodelario, is set in England, and is filmed in the U.K., where Markle and Prince Harry returned on Wednesday with their two young children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5. The prince and princess have been enrolled at a British school and are due to start in September.
McCoy, a senior entertainment reporter for News.com.au, told the BBC’s Radio 4 last week with the scoop, “I think when we all heard that news that Harry and Meghan were moving here, and within a matter of days, and the kids were enrolled in school, everyone was asking, what is Meghan going to be doing?”
The Duke and Duchess will not return to royal duties during their stay. The couple’s return faces major hurdles in British public opinion, as a poll from the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday found that 68 percent want them to pay for their own security rather than use taxpayer funding.
Markle quit acting in late 2017 following the final season of Suits, in which she starred for seven seasons. She and Harry married the following year.
She ended her eight-year break from acting last year with an upcoming cameo in the Amazon MGM Studios film, Close Personal Friends.
The move marked a major departure from the Suits star’s previous declarations about the future of her acting career. “I’m done,” she told Vogue in 2022. “I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.”
