Lifetime's Original Movie Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace, starring Jordan Dean and Sydney Morton, is the third and most recent made-for-tv movie about the romance between the UK's Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle. Each of the movies covered a set period in the lives of the couple that captured the world's attention with their fairy-tale romance. Escaping the Palace, as the title suggests, follows Harry and Meghan choosing to step away from their roles within the Royal Family, and making a life for themselves in America.
While some cast members remain consistent throughout the three movies - for instance, Laura Mitchell, who plays Kate Middleton - viewers might notice that the actors for Harry and Meghan change every single time. Netflix's award-winning drama The Crown is noted for changing its cast every two seasons, but that is done to show Queen Elizabeth and her family growing older and moving closer to the modern day. What's the excuse for a series of movies spanning a four-year time period?
An uncharitable assessment of Lifetime movies about real-life people might lead to the conclusion that the actors playing Harry and Meghan simply don't want to return to this kind of project. It's true Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace - as well as its two predecessors Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance and Becoming Royal - are very sensationalized accounts of true events. But The Crown, a more widely-viewed and prestigious series does exactly the same thing, changing parts of the Royal Family's lives, as well as actual history to suit their dramatic purposes. Ultimately, what it likely comes down to is logistics.
Though the lives of royals will always be fodder for storytellers, without an obvious idea of what stories they can tell in the future, Lifetime likely isn't locking their actors down for future movies, which is probably why the lead roles change hands so often. Shortly after completing work on A Royal Romance, star Parisa Fitz-Henly was cast in other projects, including USA's The Sinner, while Murray Fraser, who played Harry opposite her, hasn't appeared in anything on screen since. It's a similar scenario with Becoming Royal's Harry and Meghan, Charlie Field, and Tiffany Smith, with both of them working steadily following their outing as the Royal couple.
Netflix declined to label The Crown as fictional, though it's easy to see why the request was made, with the subject matter becoming more relevant and politically charged. With Escaping the Palace, which deals with an extremely recent, fraught series of events, it's also possible that Lifetime sought out actors who could convey the type of drama and emotion they were looking for. As the most experienced actors of the six to play Harry and Meghan, Dean and Morton were likely just the best fits for the roles.
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