Netflix's 'Scoop' Trailer Brings the Dish on Prince Andrew

When Netflix greenlit six seasons of The Crown sight unseen in 2014, the initial plan was to film and air the seasons back-to-back with no gap years, a feat that wound up impossible due to the planned cast turnover. Part of the reason for that initial six-year straight-through plan was to try to beat Elizabeth's eventual demise, the thought being if the show was completed by 2020 or 2021, the series would be safe. (Had the streaming service pulled off its initial plan, it would have been, too.) However, reality had other plans, and by the time Season 5 was filming, it was evident the show would be caught in the crossfire of real-time events.

However, Netflix has no such excuse for Scoop, a film made at nearly breakneck speed attempting to capitalize on the collapse of Price Andrew's position in the monarchy. The streaming service seems to have wanted the film to arrive timed to some real-time event to be relevant, even if it was just the film itself reminding everyone that one of Elizabeth II's final acts was to buy off her son's accusers.

However, it is doubtful Netflix producers would have imagined their luck that the movie would land on streaming in the middle of a near constitutional crisis, where the current ruler of the British Isles, King Charles III, has cancer; the heir apparent, William, Prince of Wales, has publicly misplaced his wife; and the spare, Harry, is happily chilling in exile in California. Reminding everyone that Harry's decamping for Cali was partly due to the family choosing Andrew's deeply incompetant idiocy over him and Meghan is just about as timely as it gets.