The Royals: Merritt Patterson Joins Upcoming E! Drama

Deadline is reporting that Merritt Patterson (Ravenswood) has joined the cast of upcoming E! drama The Royals. She’s set to play an American girl whose father is the head of security for the fictional royal family in modern day London. Her character is also in a relationship with the family’s prince, to the dismay of the disapproving queen.

From Mark Schwahn (One Tree Hill), The Royals follows a British royal family as they deal with the scrutiny of the spotlight and balance the lavish parties and high stakes political summits that come with the territory of being royals. The family consists of an image conscious queen, hell-bent on keeping her family at the top; a well-intentioned king who places his family about his subjects; and a princess who is a familiar subject for the tabloids and who has troubled reconciling her desire for independence with her sense of duty to the family.

In addition to her role on the ABC Family supernatural mystery, Patterson has appeared on the likes of Kyle XY, Life Unexpected, and The Pregnancy Pact. She joins a cast that includes Elizabeth Hurley (Gossip Girl), William Mosley (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Vincent Regan (Strike Back), Jim Piddock (Family Tree), and Poppy Corby-Tuech (Silent Witness).

You can check out a teaser for The Royals, which will become E!’s first scripted series, below. The series begins production this month in the UK.

Will you be watching The Royals? Do you think scripted content can work on a network like E!? If The Royals proves to be a success for the network, what type of scripted content would you like to see them go after next?