Netflix Scraps Controversial Prince Documentary

A controversial documentary about Prince that has been in progress for years will not be moving forward.

Director Ezra Edelman, who won an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category for his work on 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, has been working on the now-defunct Prince documentary for more than four years, according to Variety.

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The magazine was first to report the status update on the Prince documentary on Thursday, Feb. 6. The project was reportedly about nine hours long and was designed to be released in six parts.

“The Prince Estate and Netflix have come to a mutual agreement that will allow the estate to develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince’s archive,” Netflix said in a statement shared with Variety. “As a result, the Netflix documentary will not be released.”

The “When Doves Cry” singer’s estate posted the same statement on X, formerly Twitter, along with a hashtag that encouraged fans to “#STAYTUNED.”

Shortly before confirming the news, Prince’s estate tweeted a montage of photos spanning the musician’s career and added a couple of his quotes in a text overlay included with the clip. “Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people,” read one quote, while another said, “The truth is, you are either here to enlighten or discourage.” His estate paired the montage with an audio clip from his song “Free” off his 1982 album 1999 and included a message that read, “The Vault Has Been Freed. #FREE.”

Rumors about the documentary’s future have been circulating for months. Last summer, Variety reported that Prince’s estate raised concerns about alleged inaccuracies, while unnamed sources with knowledge about the project declared it “dead in the water.” In early January, CBS News reported that Prince’s estate was still engaged in a legal battle with Netflix over the film.

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