Meghan Markle’s “Suits” Revived with Spinoff Pilot amid Netflix Boom
Meghan Markle’s pre-royalty stomping ground, ‘Suits’, is enjoying a resurgence. The show recently got greenlighted for a glossy, sun-soaked Los Angeles spin-off— “Suits: LA”.
In case you’ve lived under a rock, Suits was a legal drama that aired from 2011 to 2019 and revolved around a college dropout, Mike Ross, who starts practicing law with top-notch corporate lawyer Harvey Specter, despite having no law degree.
What made Suits so phenomenal though, was its stellar lineup of cast members who absolutely owned their roles. We had the charming Gabriel Macht as Harvey Specter, the always-on-point Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross, the fabulous Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson, the badass Sarah Rafferty as Donna Paulsen – and let’s not forget Meghan Markle who played Rachel Zane before she decided to get hitched to a certain British prince.
The Meghan Markle Effect
Once upon a simpler time, Meghan Markle graced our screens as Rachel Zane in the sartorial drama “Suits”, swanning around in pencil skirts with enough eloquence to sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. She nailed the part of the paralegal-turned-lawyer with a brain sharper than the stilettos she strutted around the office in. Ever since Ms. Markle became the Duchess of Sussex there have been an assurgent of interest and viewership in the television series.
According to indy100, Suits is getting a spinoff show, and this news comes after one of the show’s original stars previously said they would be happy to return with co-star Meghan Markle.
“Suits: LA” is set to follow a new character Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, who makes the big move to LA to represent some of the most powerful clients. The plotline 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.”
The series has been ordered by NBCUniversal and production is set to begin in late March in Vancouver, according to Variety. The “Suits” spinoff, “Suits: LA” has landed a pilot order at NBCUniversal. Production is scheduled to start in late March in Vancouver.
The original series ran for nine seasons from 2011-2019 on USA Network, but has recently regained popularity after the first eight seasons were added to Netflix. When accounting streams on Netflix and Peacock (which also homes another “Suits” spinoff, “Pearson”), the series reigned over the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for several months and ultimately breaking the record for the most-ever No. 1 appearances on Nielsen’s chart.
Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Gina Torres (who led the short-lived “Pearson” spinoff), Sarah Rafferty, among others starred in the flagship series. Though, none of the original cast is attached to the spinoff as of yet and NBC has not yet named a lead star.
“Suits” creator Aaron Korsh serves as writer and executive producer alongside David Bartis and Dog Liman for Hypnotic, and Gene Klein. Victoria Mahoney is attached to direct. UCP, which produced the original show, is the studio. ~Variety