The upcoming animated series about Prince George has cast Downtown Abbey actor Dan Stevens as the voice of Prince Philip and Prince Charles. The parody show about the royal family will be coming to the streaming platform, HBO Max.
Stevens is replacing Tom Hollander as the original voice actor for Prince George's grandfather and great-grandfather. Daily Mail, however, reported that it's unclear why Hollander dropped out of the cartoons created by Gary Janetti.
The satire is based on Janetti's Instagram posts featuring the third in line to the British throne. Janetti's biting commentaries about the issues affecting the royal family, as Prince George, became a hit among his followers that it landed him a deal with HBO Max. The writer and creator will also lend his voice to the seven-year-old royal.
Also joining The Prince are Orlando Bloom as the voice of Prince Harry, Sophie Turner as Princess Charlotte, Iwan Rheon as Prince William, Lucy Punch as Kate Middleton, Condola Rashad as Meghan Markle, and Frances De La Tour as Queen Elizabeth. Alan Cumming will voice Owen, Prince George's fictional butler.
Janetti previously released two teasers for The Prince on Instagram. One teaser presented Princess Charlotte with his older brother and the other teaser, launched at the height of the pandemic, gave viewers a first teaser of what the show will look and feel.
While Janetti's Instagram feed has a lot of fans entertained, some left comments in the posts about the potentially offensive reference to Meghan or Camilla. One commenter called out Janetti for the racist undertones in his jokes, while another commenter slammed him for the jokes about Camilla's physical features.
Royal expert Omid Scobie expressed concerns that The Prince could become a mockery of Prince George and the royal family. The Finding Freedom author hopes that the animation will be about "laughing with the royals" and not laughing at them.
However, Bloom, who is British, said that the show's writing is actually smart. He wouldn't sign up for The Prince if it made poked fun at the royal family.
Meanwhile, Prince William revealed that while his children are blood royals, George, Charlotte and Louis are pretty much regular messy kids who caused quite a commotion in their kitchen during the lockdown. The Cambridge children did a lot of cooking and baking with Kate and Prince William.
The Duke of Cambridge admitted that he was relieved in-person classes resumed in September after five months of looking after the kids and keeping them occupied at home while the schools were closed. The U.K. is currently in its second nationwide lockdown until the first week of December but, fortunately, in-person classes are not affected.
