Suits: LA gets its star! Controversial Arrow actor Stephen Amell to lead NBC’s Suits spinoff – but a Meghan Markle cameo looks unlikely after Royal distanced herself from acting career

Stephen Amell has landed the lead role on NBC’s Suits upcoming spinoff, Suits: LA, which was ordered earlier this month amid renewed success of the original series

His casting comes as the the legal drama, which starred Meghan Markle, Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht, became a streaming sensation in 2023.

After the program was acquired by Netflix and Peacock in mid-2023, it began breaking viewership records and surpassed 3 billion minutes watched.

Suit only enjoyed middling success during its initial run from 2011 to 2019, but is now America’s most-watched TV show, with Disney+’s animated children’s program Bluey in second place.

The unprecedented surge in popularity prompted creator Aaron Korsh to begin working on a Suits spinoff in October.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amell a former New York prosecutor, named Ted Black, ‘who now heads a Los Angeles law firm, specializing in criminal and entertainment law, alongside an old friend.’

The show’s logline also teases: ‘His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career.’

Earlier this month, a source DailyMail.com exclusively confirmed that Markle would not appear in the reboot, despite writers creating a ‘perfect role’ for her.

‘Meghan was clear that she didn’t want to be involved as an actor. But Archewell was trying to wiggle its way in as a production company on the spin-off,’ the insider claimed. ‘NBC have killed that idea.’

Separate sources close to Archewell deny this vigorously however, and say that the company would never have been involved in a reboot.

Meghan played paralegal Rachel Zane in the original show, before leaving the role one year after meeting Prince Harry in 2016.

On the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new website, her ‘about me’ describes her as ‘feminist and champion of human rights and gender equity’ but glosses over her career in the entertainment industry as an actress.

The pilot for Suits: LA, which was ordered in February, was written by Korsh, alongside Suits alums David Bartis, Doug Liman and Gene Klein.