Netflix is ‘rattled’ by King Charles, will postpone the Sussexes’ documentary?

I remember Baz Bamigboye’s byline when he worked for the Daily Mail. He was one of their top “showbiz” columnists, and sometimes he had some interesting tea on what was happening in London-based TV shows and film productions. I didn’t realize that he’s now a columnist for Deadline, an actual trade paper in Hollywood. I looked at his Wiki – he left the Mail earlier this year, and went directly to work for Deadline in February. Well, I don’t know if he’s still getting his scoops from British people – sounds like he is – but he’s got a new Deadline exclusive about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “documentary” or “docu-series.” Keep in mind, the only reason we know that this documentary/series is even happening is because Meghan mentioned it in her profile in The Cut. Since then, the British gossips have been desperate to throw anything at the wall to see what sticks. Here’s where we are now:

Rattled after attacks on Season 5 of The Crown, Netflix has decided to postpone its documentary series featuring Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, until next year. The documentary unofficially had been slated to stream on Netflix in December following the November 9 launch of The Crown.

However, Netflix came under fire over the weekend from former UK Prime Minister John Major, who complained about a plot line in Episode 1 of Season 5 suggesting that in 1991 Prince Charles, now King Charles III, summoned Major to moan about having to wait to take over the throne. Major has insisted that no such conversation about a plot to overthrow the late Queen took place and described it as ”malicious nonsense.” Other establishment figures spent the weekend savaging a show that they’ve yet to see, often relying on inaccurate reports of what the Season 5 episodes are said to contain.

But following days of negative front-page stories, executives at Netflix felt that it would be foolhardy to stream The Crown in November followed by the Harry and Meghan documentary in December.

“They’re rattled at Netflix, and they blinked first and decided to postpone the documentary,” a source told Deadline.

The untitled documentary series produced by Netflix and Archewell Productions did not set an official broadcast date. However, officials at Netflix had stated several times this year that they’d wanted to do a royal double-whammy, with The Crown to run first, to be followed a few weeks later by the docuseries, some of which was filmed at Harry and Meghan’s Montecito estate.

Both Netflix and Buckingham Palace have been ultra-sensitive about both The Crown and the docuseries since Queen Elizabeth’s death September 8, which is when Charles ascended to the throne. It may well suit the Duke and Duchess to have the documentary delayed while they reconsider its content.

There’s also anxiety about the filming next week of the scenes that led to Princess Diana’s death in Paris. Netflix has stipulated that the crash-impact scenes will not be shown.

Netflix said Monday that ”there’s never been any documentary from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed.” Deadline has reached out to Archewell for comment.

[From Deadline]

This is false: “officials at Netflix had stated several times this year that they’d wanted to do a royal double-whammy” – Netflix officials have said nothing of the kind. British sources and royal sources have been assuming the “double-whammy” and they’ve been running around telling everyone their assumptions as fact. And is that “double whammy” quote not contradicted by “there’s never been any documentary from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed”? As in, Netflix is still saying that you guys don’t know anything, we’re going to do whatever we want and we haven’t announced anything either way. Plus, the whole argument that Netflix (a multi-billion-dollar streamer) is somehow running scared because King Charles is throwing a lil baby tantrum? Come on. If anything, Netflix will want to strike while the iron is hot and do wall-to-wall royal content through November and December. This delusional argument that Netflix is quaking in their proverbial boots about C-Rex is something coming FROM Salt Island.

PS… Now Page Six claims Deadline’s story is false and the plan is still to release the Sussex doc in December.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.