Netflix canceled Meghan Markle's show before it ever aired

After its recent damning quarterly report, the streaming giant is making big changes, including the cancelation of Pearl, the kids' series Markle was developing.

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS - APRIL 17: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend...
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Culture

Netflix has axed an upcoming animated series from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. After going into development in July of last year, Pearl has been canceled amid a rocky time for the giant screamer.

Initially planned as the first animated series from Archewell Productions, the power couple’s company that has an overall deal with Netflix, the kids’ show was to follow a young girl whose adventures are inspired by various influential women throughout history.

The cancellation is just one facet of swift and ongoing cutbacks that have come in recent days after Netflix reported net losses in its subscriptions in the first quarter of this year — the first time in a decade that the streaming giant has lost subscribers — leading its stock to drop dramatically. The company canceled two other children’s animated shows, Dino Daycare and Ada Twist, Scientist (an animated show from the Obamas’ own company), along with its high-profile Steve Carrell sitcom Space Force; last week, it also laid off a host of writers from their editorial site Tudum.

Pearl, though, was just one project among many that Markle and Prince Harry are developing with Netflix, including the upcoming Heart of Invictus, a docuseries that follows the competitors of the Invictus Games, the international sporting event for veterans that Prince Harry founded in 2014.