Three lawyers and a Duchess walk onto a panel…
On Monday, the ATX TV Festival announced that it will have a 5-year anniversary panel with the cast and creative of the USA Network show, “Suits.”
The “retrospective” panel will feature a conversation with creator/EP/showrunner Aaron Korsh, Sarah Rafferty (Donna), Patrick J Adams (Mike) and Dulé Hill (Alex). The festival said there will be “more to be announced in the coming months.”
Before she became famous as one half of the “Harry and Meghan” power-couple, Meghan Markle, 42, was best known for co-starring on that series as paralegal turned lawyer, Rachel Zane, but it’s unknown if Markle will take part in the panel.
The Post has reached out to the ATX TV festival and Markle’s reps for comment.
“Suits,” which originally ran on USA Network for nine seasons from 2011-2019, is set at a fictional NYC law firm, following Mike Ross (Patrick J Adams) who talks his way into a job as an associate working for attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), despite having never attended law school.
Markle met and tied the knot with Prince Harry toward the end of the show’s run, and left it in 2017. She did not return for the series finale.
Over the sumer, “Suits” saw an astonishing record surge in popularity when it hit Netflix.
In early July, when it debuted on Netflix in the US, it snared an eye-popping 3.1 billion viewing minutes in its opening week on Netflix and Peacock and 3.7 billion viewing minutes the following week — a streaming record for an acquired series (as opposed to an original show).
Creator Aaron Korsh told The Post that he thinks the show’s sudden newfound popularity is, “A multi-tiered effect.”
He said that he started hearing from people who told them their teen kids “started watching the series — and now all their friends are addicted to it … like seniors in high school and freshmen in college. Somehow it got hot on TikTok and then, when it got on Netflix, they will suggest/push a show on you and that was a huge thing,” Korsh said.
He also said that public interest in Markle is also part of the reason for the show’s bump. .
“And, obviously, there’s some component of people being fascinated to see what Meghan was like before she was married to Harry,” he said.
“Look, I love the fact that Meghan is now helping us. I think she did an amazing job on the show and I love that people can see her. The reason I don’t think that’s the only reason [for the viewership spike] is that she’s been married to Harry for many years and ‘Suits’ has been out there for many years — and, for whatever reason, people started watching it this summer.”
Earlier this month, Markle made it clear that she’s aware of the sudden new interest in “Suits.”
While attending Variety’s Power of Women event in Los Angeles, she told Variety, “Isn’t that wild? It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew. We had a really fun time. I was on it for seven seasons, so quite a bit. But it’s hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with [its new popularity]. My husband is loving it, too. It’s really fun,” she added.
“Suits” executive producer Gene Klein told TV Line that if “Suits” got a revival, he “would assume” that Markle returning is, “Just not possible.”
But, it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t participate in a panel.
The ATX TV Festival will take place from May 30 through June 2, in Austin, TX.
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