There was a brief window after news broke that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was considering a return to acting – but before reports revealed what that comeback might actually look like – when the possibilities seemed endless. This was a story years in the making: after marrying Prince Harry in 2018, the woman formerly billed as Meghan Markle stopped acting entirely (having filmed her final scenes in the legal drama Suits the previous year). She moved to the US with her husband and children and pivoted instead to dreary non-fiction content on Netflix. With Meghan now a huge global celebrity, you had to wonder what sort of project, what sort of un-turn-downable role, could possibly convince her to re-enter the thespian sphere. If reports are to be believed, that tantalising project is… season three of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen.

A spin-off of Ritchie’s 2019 gangster film of the same name, The Gentlemen is, essentially, high-end schlock. I’m not saying it’s beneath the duchess, but her involvement would be the most noteworthy thing about it. With a cast that includes Theo James, Ray Winstone, and Kaya Scodelario, the series follows a duke who runs a drug empire. It’s low-brow and pulpy, though the first two seasons saw the show develop a sturdy fanbase. It is, oddly, exactly the kind of programme you might imagine an actor like Meghan appearing on, had she continued her Suits-era career trajectory and not married a prominent member of the British royal family. But of course, she did – which makes the prospect of a sojourn in Ritchie’s grimy guns-and-geezers oeuvre something of a strange proposition.

There are logistical reasons why The Gentlemen might make sense. The previous two series have been filmed around the Cotswolds – where it is rumoured that Harry and Meghan are set to live when they return to the UK this month. That The Gentlemen is a Netflix production also scans, given the Sussexes’ extensive ties to the streaming service. Although you would have to imagine that her services won’t come cheap, it makes sense from the production’s side, too: Meghan’s involvement would constitute stunt casting of the highest order, guaranteed to draw in a big audience. Unlike many acts of stunt casting, though, this involves someone with an actual background in acting, who has proved she can hold her own on a major TV series before.

On Meghan’s end, you might assume there’s an appeal to diving back into the world of acting after the caustic responses to some of her Netflix endeavours. (With Love, Meghan, her branded Netflix reality series, was described as “queasy and exhausting” in The Independent’s one-star review, one damning review of many.) Joining the cast of an existing TV series takes much of the pressure away. She would be a cog in a larger machine, even if that cog is the reason many people are tuning in.

It’s true that whatever comeback project Meghan plumps for, she will face a level of scrutiny that her acting has never encountered before. She drew fine reviews for her work in Suits – less charismatic than some of her co-stars, but by no means the weak link in the chain – but was judged at the time by the usual standards for a supporting character in a network legal drama. Now, all eyes will be on her, and everyone watching will, of course, have an opinion.

To some extent, something like The Gentlemen is a safe option – a show where the whole cast is a bit hammy, the dialogue is not elegant enough to butcher, and if Meghan’s acting is bad, it won’t stand out. But you can’t help but wonder what the alternatives would be. Surely there are filmmakers out there who would cast the duchess in something provocative, something challenging; surely someone can look at Meghan, and all the fascinating extratextual baggage that comes with her celebrity, and conjure up a meaty role around it. Maybe this is not what she wants to achieve as an actor – but then again, what does she want to achieve? As of this week, the answer to this question has never been less clear.