EXCLUSIVE: After producing the 2024 Netflix docuseries Polo, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are revisiting the world in a scripted form. The streamer is developing a polo-themed drama, which the Sussexes are executive producing under their Netflix deal. It comes from the duo’s Archewell Productions and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire.
Written by Francisca X. Hu (Peacock’s Teacup), the untitled project is an upstairs-downstairs drama set in the high-flying equestrian town of Wellington, FL, which revolves around the messy dynamics between two rival teams and the families that lead them.
Hu executive produces alongside Archewell’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; and head of scripted content Tracy Ryerson; as well as Fake Empire’s Schwartz and Savage.
The drama is believed to stem from the docuseries Polo, which followed the teams competing at the U.S. Open Polo Championship held in Wellington, and the family dynasties involved. A passion project of Prince Harry, an avid polo player who has a lot of friends in that world, the docuseries did not draw a lot of eyeballs and ran for one season. The scripted show is widening the scope of what is considered an elitist “sport of kings” beyond the rich owners and players.
The polo drama is one of a handful of projects Prince Harry and Markle have in development at Netflix under their deal, which was previously overall and is now first-look.
They include features The Wedding Date, which, as Deadline revealed in December, Tracy Oliver has come on board to write based on Jasmine Guillory’s book; and an adaptation of Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake. A director is now being attached to the latter and is expected to do a rewrite, sources said.
Work on the projects continues amid a high level of scrutiny following Netflix’s recent pullout as an investor in Markle’s lifestyle brand As Ever and the streamer’s docuseries used as a launchpad for the brand, With Love, Meghan, not going beyond its initial two-season order.
“We still have a relationship with them,” Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said last week at the Next on Netflix event when asked by Deadline about the duo’s workings with the global streamer, brushing off reports that Netflix may be “done” with them. “We have movies in development with them. We have an amazing doc with them. They have things in development on the TV and film side. Deals come and go all the time, and we don’t renew so many deals, those just don’t get as much press for obvious reasons. There’s no juicy story there.”
Prince Harry and Markle’s most successful project for Netflix to date remains their first collaboration with the streamer, the 2022 Harry & Meghan, which logged Netflix’s most watched docuseries debut.
This marks a reteaming of Hu with Schwartz and Savage after she served as a writer-producer on their CW drama series Dynasty.