The Royals creator Mark Schwahn fired after misconduct investigation
In a statement per The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s studio (Lionsgate TV) had the following to say:
“We have concluded our investigation and Mark will not be returning to The Royals … The fourth season of the show has already completed production and will air as scheduled on E! in the spring.”
The Royals season 4 is apparently set to go according to plan, but we absolutely sympathize with many of the cast and crew members. Throughout the promotional campaign for the show Schwahn is likely going to be a subject of conversation, and they have to prepare themselves for that. The one thing that we do hope is that the series and all of the cast and crew aren’t impacted in a negative way because of their creator’s actions — i.e. that people stop watching. There is no guarantee of The Royals season 5 happening, so at some point in the spring the network E! is going to have to determine whether or not they want to bring the show back. We know that there are plenty of more-than-capable showrunners who work on the series and, beyond that, there are probably many others who would love the opportunity to come in and work with this canvas of performers.
This was the right move for Lionsgate to make, and in many ways this was the only move that they could make. They could not allow someone to continue to be a part of their show who had been accused of this many unspeakable things. The accusations against Schwahn date back to One Tree Hill as many former cast members there have spoken out against him and some of his actions there.
Schwahn is not the first prolific showrunner to have been fired in the midst of the #MeToo movement, as we’ve also seen Andrew Kreisberg, one of the architects behind the Arrow-verse over at The CW, also been shown the door.
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