Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Will Be Parodied in New HBO Show ‘The Prince’
In recent years, Prince Harry, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the other members of the royal family have inspired everything from sympathy to disdain. Now they’re inspiring a new cartoon. Here’s what we know about the upcoming HBO sitcom The Prince.
HBO announces a new show based on an Instagram account
According to Deadline, Gary Janetti, a producer of Family Guy, created an Instagram account which satirically portrayed the royal family through the eyes of a fictionalized Prince George. The account garnered lots of attention online. It’s now being adapted into an animated sitcom for HBO.
HBO announced the show in a tweet. The tweet read “.@GaryJanetti is bringing the royal family to the HBO Max family with The Prince, which follows an animated Prince George spilling all that British Royal Tea,” reports the BBC. The show is an irreverent look at current events a la South Park.
Fox News says HBO Max executive Sarah Aubrey is elated to be part of the show. “We’re so excited to bring the world Gary’s created on Instagram over to HBO Max, where our viewers can discover what his Instagram fans already know – that George can be hilarious, shocking and surprisingly sweet.” She added “We can’t wait to see what Gary does with a bigger canvas to paint on than just a 1:1 square.”
What can we expect from ‘The Prince’?
Janetti said: “I’m thrilled to be working at HBO Max and bringing them yet another series about a family ruthlessly fighting for the throne.” He was referring to previous HBO hit Game of Thrones. Hopefully, The Prince will avoid some of the controversies surrounding that show.
The Instagram account initially portrayed Prince George as disliking the Duchess of Sussex. According to the Evening Standard, Janetti explained “The spotlight had been on George since he was born. Everybody was so consumed with George as the star of the show. Then, here comes this beautiful American woman, and he’s relegated to the sideline in his mind…The fact that she is so appealing and winning is what’s so galling to George.”
How will the show portray Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
As of late, Janetti’s satire has taken a kinder view of Harry and Meghan. Janetti explained “I do know it feels like [the Sussexes are] having a rough go of it – I think that’s the gist. The way I see it, in my world, [Meghan] is family, they are family, and George rallies around family.”
Janetti elaborated “Now he sees that people and the press have piled on her, he doesn’t like it, and he’s rallying around the family. As of now, Meghan — he wants to take her under his wing. Now we’re seeing George might secretly like her. You know, he does not like to kick somebody when they’re down.”
Given how the royal family are going through a peak period of public scrutiny, Janetti and company will certainly have loads of material to work with. It appears his satire will be gentle, something which will set his show apart from Family Guy. We can only speculate how the royal family will feel about the show.
