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Lifetime has cast its Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for the upcoming TV movie Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace. The Punisher’s Jordan Dean and She’s Gotta Have It’s Sydney Morton will be playing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the third installment of the Harry & Meghan franchise. Lifetime shared a first photo of the stars dressed as their royal characters on Wednesday—the Sussexes’ third wedding anniversary! Sydney was pictured wearing a green dress similar to the Emilia Wickstead number Meghan wore for her final royal engagement last March.
The Duke and Duchess have been portrayed by different actors in the previous two films: Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance and Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal.
In addition to Jordan and Syndey, the cast of Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace also includes Jordan Whalen (Prince William), Laura Mitchell (Kate Middleton), Steve Coulter (Prince Charles), Maggie Sullivun (Queen Elizabeth), Melanie Nicholls-King (Doria Ragland), Bonnie Soper (Princess Diana), Deborah Ramsay (the Duchess of Cornwall) and James Dreyfus, who is playing a palace insider named Leonard.
According to Lifetime, the movie, directed by Menhaj Huda, will explore “what really happened inside the palace that drove” Meghan and Harry to “leave everything behind in order to make a future for themselves and their son Archie.” Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace will examine the dynamics between Princess Diana’s sons, sisters-in-law Kate and Meghan, and Harry with his brother and father, that “lead to the ultimate break from the royal ties.”
The Lifetime film will detail the Duchess’ “growing isolation and sadness, their disappointment that ‘The Firm’ was not defending them against the press‘s attacks and Harry’s fear that history would repeat itself and he would not be able to protect his wife and son from the same forces that may have contributed to his mother’s untimely death.”
Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace, which is currently in production in Vancouver, is scheduled to premiere fall 2021.