Meghan Markle Will NOT Appear In New LA-Based Suits Reboot

Meghan Markle will not appear in the upcoming Suits reboot – despite writers creating a ‘perfect role’ for her – but she did try and get her company Archewell involved in the production.

News hit the web last month that a spin-off series entitled Suits: LA was in the works, four years after the original show that propelled Meghan into the spotlight came to an end – and immediately, speculation about whether or not the Duchess of Sussex would be involved ensued.

Now, sources close to the new show have confirmed exclusively to DailyMail.com that Prince Harry’s wife has no plans to act in the series, even though it features a character who appeared to be tailor-made for her.

While mom-of-two Meghan, 42, has not opted to join the new project as on-screen talent, the insider suggested that that she might have been interested in getting involved another way – as an executive producer, via her production company Archewell.

‘Meghan was clear that she didn’t want to be involved as an actor. But Archewell was trying to wiggle its way in as a production company on the spin-off,’ they claimed. ‘NBC have killed that idea.’

Separate sources close to Archewell deny this vigorously however, and say that the company would never have been involved in a reboot.

Meghan played paralegal Rachel Zane in the original show, which premiered in 2011 and came to an end in 2019, but she left in 2017 after her romance with Prince Harry took off.

Last summer, the legal drama unexpectedly became the most streamed show in the US for 12 weeks straight after it was added to Netflix.

Soon after, rumors began to spread that it was going to be rebooted after Patrick J. Adams – who played Michael James Ross, Meghan’s love-interest in the series -started sharing a slew of never-before-seen shots from when he was making the show.

The actor posted a carousel of throwback behind-the-scene images of himself and his fellow Suits stars – including many intimate shots of the Duchess of Sussex – which he captioned, ‘I miss my friends.’

He shared some more in another post the next day, writing, ‘This well is deep.’ Both posts were later deleted, as Patrick said they posed as a ‘distraction’ from the actors’ strike.

At the time, however, many speculated that his posts were a clue that the hit series was going to make a comeback.

One month later, it was revealed that a spinoff series was in development at NBCUniversal.

Suits creator Aaron Korsh has returned to develop the new show, serving as writer and executive producer alongside David Bartis and Dog Liman for Hypnotic, and Gene Klein.

Entitled Suits: LA, it will be set in the same world as the original, but will feature new characters and take place in Los Angeles rather than New York City.

It’s set to follow Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles, with production slated to start in Vancouver in late March, per Variety.

A synopsis reads: ‘His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career.

‘Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives.

‘All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved.’

Aaron has created a character, named Erica, who appears tailor-made to be played by Meghan.

Erica is an African-American career-focused Californian girl in her 30s who is ‘smarter than everyone’ and enjoys an eventful personal life.

Meghan reacted to her show’s resurgence at the end of last year, telling Variety that she had ‘no idea’ what prompted it but added, ‘Good shows are everlasting.’

‘It’s hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days,’ she continued. ‘So that could have something to do with it.’

Many of the original Suits stars reunited at the Golden Globes earlier in January, including Patrick, Gina Torres, Sarah Rafferty, and Gabriel Macht – but Meghan was conspicuously absent.

Gina, who was once so close to Meghan that she was among the guests at St George’s Chapel in Windsor for the royal wedding in 2018, made a shocking admission about her relationship with the Duchess during the event.

She admitted: ‘We don’t have her number. We just don’t,’ adding that the rest of the cast kept in touch via a WhatsApp group.

While chatting with E! News on the red carpet at the event, Patrick also discussed the upcoming spinoff.

‘I’m totally astounded it’s found a second life. I feel honored,’ he said. ‘When you walk away from a show, you think that’s it and you’re going to move on to something else and just to know that a whole new generation of people are finding it and loving it – loving it almost more than they loved it the first time around, it’s incredible.’

And Patrick was eager to express his willingness to reprise his role in a potential reboot, adding: ‘Let’s go, I’d do it. I’m ready. Mike and Rachel in Seattle.’

In addition, it was recently revealed that Gina, Sarah, and Rick Hoffman had came together for an upcoming Super Bowl commercial for the beauty brand E.l.f. Cosmetics.

The makeup company shared a sneak peak of the ad last week, which will air on CBS during the Super Bowl on February 11.

While chatting with People about it, Rick said working with his former costars again was ‘peak happiness,’ while Sarah described it like ‘coming home.’

They added that Patrick couldn’t appear in the commercial because he was busy ‘shooting a film in South Africa,’ but they did not mention Meghan.

When the first eight seasons of the series were added to Netflix last year, the show dominated the top of the streaming charts for months – and ultimately broke the record for the most ever number one appearances on the American Nielsen ratings chart.

Gina told People that the sudden spotlight on the show has been ‘kind of odd and wonderful.’

‘It’s like, “Oh, right. They’re still here. They did incredible work,”‘ she said. ‘Everybody in the industry that maybe relegated us to, “Oh, that’s that cute cable show.”‘

Meghan and Harry have a development deal at Netflix which is due to run out in September 2025.

So far they have made a tell-all documentary about their lives (called Harry & Meghan), plus a documentary about the Invictus Games.

Last year, Archewell acquired the rights to a romantic novel, Meet Me At The Lake, which the couple plan to adapt into a movie.

Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria said last week that there was a film and a series ‘in very early development’ from the Sussexes, and added that they have ‘a couple of unscripted things they’re working on,’ but did not share any more details about what those may be.

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