Picture: Netflix
Archewell Productions, run by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (The Duke and Duchess of Sussex), is engaged with Netflix in a multi-year output content deal to produce movies, series, and specials. Here are all the currently available projects as of 2024, what’s coming next, and what’s rumored or confirmed to be in development.
Over the years, Netflix has struck huge deals with various production companies, showrunners, and producers to make content exclusively for them. In September 2020, Netflix gained global headlines with its big deal with Archewell Productions.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a comprehensive output deal with Netflix with their newly formed production company, with some sources stating that they were offered $100 million for the deal. The deal runs through 2025. Archewell’s website (which also lists the pair’s efforts outside of Netflix) states that Archewell “will utilize the power of storytelling to embrace our shared humanity and duty to truth through a compassionate lens.”
Available Archewell Productions Now Streaming on Netflix
Harry & Meghan
Released on Netflix: December 8th and December 15th, 2022
Picture: Netflix
The pair’s first project was a docu-series that looked back at their time within the Royal Family. The highly charged and well-publicized documentary series, directed by Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone? and Britney vs. Spears), was controversial, to say the least. It provided intimate details of the couple’s relationship with each other and with the press, among others.
The two-week docuseries broke headlines around the world and became Netflix’s top-performing documentary series just one week after its release. It spent 4 weeks in the global top 10s, picking up just shy of a quarter of a billion hours watched, equating to 44 million views. From the Netflix Engagement Reports covering viewing from 2023 to 2024, the series pulled in 62M hours watched (10.7M views) in the first half of 2023, 10.9M hours (1.9M views) in the second half of 2023, and 10.7M hours (1.8M views) in the first half of 2024.
Live to Lead
Type: Docu-series
Released on Netflix: December 31st, 2022
Picture: Netflix
This seven-part documentary series, released on New Year’s Eve in 2022, examines some of the extraordinary leaders of our lifetimes. Blackwell & Ruth produced the documentary series in association with Archewell Productions, Cinetic Media, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Among the people featured include:
- Climate activist Greta Thunberg
- Former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
- South Africa’s national rugby union team captain and social inequality campaigner Siya Kolisi
- Feminist icon and social justice activist Gloria Steinem
- Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Albie Sach
- Social justice attorney and advocate Bryan Stevenson
The series didn’t make much of a splash on Netflix, failing to enter the daily top 10s in any country or global top 10 charts. From the Engagement Reports, we know the series pulled in 2.3M hours (700K views) in the first half of 2023, 400K (100K views) in the second half of 2023, and failed to qualify (less than 100K), for the first half of 2024.
Heart Of Invictus
Type: Docu-series
Released on Netflix: 2023
Picture: Netflix
First announced in April 2021, Heart of Invictus was originally expected to be the first title released from the duo’s output deal with Netflix. For those unaware of the Invictus Games, they’re the equivalent of the Olympics for wounded military service personnel. Prince Harry founded the international sporting event in 2014.
The documentary series will follow athletes’ training for the next set of games, which were postponed until 2022 in The Hague, Netherlands. Behind the docuseries will be Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara (Evelyn, The White Helmets, Virunga).
The show failed to enter the global top 10s or any of the daily top 10s on Netflix anywhere in the world. In the Netflix Engagement Report, we know it picked up 1.5M hours watched in the second half of 2023 with 300,000 views, although it wasn’t eligible for the first half of the 2024 engagement report because it had less than 100,000 views.
Polo
Type: Docu-series
Released on Netflix: December 10th, 2024
Picture: Netflix
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of Netflix’s Drive to Survive or Full Swing, this new five-part series from showrunner Miloš Balać (Welcome to Wrexham) offers an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the world of polo. It follows elite global players as they compete in the high-stakes U.S. Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Florida.
Rumored / In Development Archewell Productions Projects at Netflix
Untitled Meghan Curated Documentary Series
Format: Unscripted Series
Picture Credit: Robin L Marshall/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Announced in April 2024, this series was originally expected to drop in 2024, but unless there’s a last-minute surprise, it may be pushed into 2025 despite wrapping up filming in July 2024 in Montecito, California. The new lifestyle series is “curated by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and celebrates the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship.” Michael Steed is directing the project and has worked with Netflix on My Guest Needs No Introduction and, more famously, Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.
Bad Manners
Format: Scripted Series
Picture: Charles Dickens’s book
Slowly revealed over the summer of 2023, the duo will adapt the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, giving it a modern makeover. The novel follows the life and experiences of the protagonist, Pip (Philip Pirrip), as he navigates the challenges of social class, ambition, and personal growth in Victorian England. Netflix hasn’t officially confirmed the project, and they haven’t responded to our multiple attempts to comment.
Meet Me At The Lake
Format: Movie
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In August 2023, The Sun first reported that Archewell Productions had optioned (this means they’ve gotten the exclusive rights to adapt into a movie or series) Carley Fortune’s The book’s story follows a couple who meet in their 30s dealing with childhood trauma, including losing a parent in a car crash, mental health challenges, and post-natal depression. The couple is rumored to have paid $3.8 million for the rights to the book, but Netflix has yet to comment publicly on the project.
Canceled Archewell Productions Titles No Longer at Netflix
Pearl
Type: Animated Series
This new animated series was set to be helmed by Amanda Rynda, known for DC Super Hero Girls and The Loud House. It was set to follow a 12-year-old girl on heroic adventures inspired by history’s most influential women. Alongside the announcement of the animated series back in July 2021, Meghan released a statement with the following:
“Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges. I’m thrilled that Archewell Productions, partnered with the powerhouse platform of Netflix, and these incredible producers, will together bring you this new animated series, which celebrates extraordinary women throughout history. David Furnish and I have been eager to bring this special series to light, and I am delighted we are able to announce it today.”
The show was sadly canceled in 2022, among many other big cuts for Netflix’s animation department that saw nearly a dozen projects in development cut.
Are you looking forward to Netflix’s upcoming slate of Archewell Productions titles? Let us know in the comments.