Yes, Prince Harry Really Is the Villain in the World’s Most R-Rated Zombie Series

It may seem impossible, but the rumors are true – the British royal Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a villain in the world’s most extreme zombie series, Crossed. While it’s unlikely that Prince Harry’s villainous character will appear in the upcoming Crossed movie, fans should still know the story of how the major public figure became a post-apocalyptic bad guy.

Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows’ Crossed is famous for its no-holds-barred zombie-esque apocalypse. Crossed takes place in a world where a viral infection causes people to be overcome by their worst instincts, driven to carry out acts of grotesque and creative cruelty in the interest of causing the maximum amount of human suffering. The series contains jaw-dropping violence shown in explicit detail, as humanity is swallowed by its own capacity for evil.

The original Crossed miniseries launched in 2008, introducing the world of the Crossed, and was followed by a number of spin-offs by a range of creators, including the anthology series Crossed: Badlands. For the first three issues of Badlands, Ennis and Burrows returned to the universe they created, with a tale that turns Harry Mountbatten-Windsor into a scarred survivor of the end times.

Prince Harry Is a Selfish Survivor in Crossed’s Apocalypse

The Comic References the Prince’s Military Service

In ‘Of the World and Its Becoming,’ Crossed: Badlands follows a group of survivors who are being pursued by a tireless band of cross-marked killers. The group attempt to travel across Scotland, hoping that the winter conditions will kill off their sadistic pursuers before they catch up. The group are hampered by a pregnant survivor whose movement speed is limited, and aided by several deadly members, including one who claims to be Prince Harry.

Harry claims that his royal bodyguards rescued him and his father (the then-Prince Charles) from Balmoral Castle, but that the rest of his group were killed in a helicopter crash, resulting in injuries to his face that make it impossible to be 100% sure he’s the real deal. The character certainly seems to be the prince, however, possessing Prince Harry’s accent and military training, with the characters accepting his backstory and help.

Ultimately, ‘Of the World and Its Becoming’ is a dark tragedy. The survivors are eventually overrun, but not before the narrator has attempted to abandon the group’s pregnant member and later left his supposed friends for dead. The story ends with the protagonist splashed by Harry’s blood and about to turn Crossed, trying to summon the courage to pull the pin on his last remaining grenade as the Crossed close in around him.

Why Crossed Is So Harsh on Prince Harry

Even in the UK, Not Everyone Loves the Royal Family

It may not be surprising that a public figure like Prince Harry would be used in a shock-hungry series like Crossed, but some readers will find it unusual that he’s a villain. While the story’s protagonist is the one who arranges a vote to leave the pregnant group member behind, he ultimately abides by the decision when it goes against him, while Harry continues pressing the group to abandon her. His callousness ends up being rewarded by a horrifying fate, as the Crossed group literally saw Harry in two before turning him to join their ranks.

Published in 2010, Crossed: Badlands came out long before Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle and their subsequent decision to step away from the Royal Family and move to America full-time. Prior to this, Prince Harry had been the center of several public controversies, including wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party and using racial slurs in video filmed during his military service.

Crossed uses Harry as a critique of the divide between the Royal Family and everyday people – when Harry insists the group leave their pregnant member behind, a previously skeptical member notes his selfishness and replies, “Okay, you’re tellin’ the truth. … You’re one o’ the Royal Family. I believe you now.”

Writer Garth Ennis has a long history of critiquing class inequality in his body of work, which includes The Boys and Preacher. It’s become a hallmark of Ennis’ fiction to bring low any character who sees themself as inherently above others, whether it’s the Supe supremacist Homelander or God himself, who Ennis has parodied in multiple projects including Preacher and Chronicles of Wormwood. Even Batman doesn’t pass muster for Ennis, with the Batman: Reptilian writer describing the iconic character as “a billionaire aristocrat who beats up poor people, as well as the mentally ill” during a 2021 interview with Comic Book Resources.

Prince Harry’s Reputation Has Changed Since His Appearance in Crossed

It Will Be Interesting to See How Adaptations Treat This Story

While Crossed is known for its extreme depictions of bloodshed and sexual violence, the franchise does have a point to make. Ennis makes it clear throughout that while the Crossed are maniacal villains, they’re not doing anything to each other that humans haven’t done before. The comic and its spin-offs criticize those who abandon their humanity, ceasing to value human life and dignity, and this is a particular focus in ‘Of the World and Its Becoming.’

In 2010, Prince Harry made sense as shorthand for critiquing class divides within the UK and the contentious place of the Royal Family. Today, he couldn’t serve the same purpose, with leaving the UK and his autobiography Spare positioning him as someone who rejected life as a royal. How much Prince Harry deserves to be portrayed as a villain is down to the individual, but he certainly couldn’t embody the same metaphorical point today as he did in 2010’s Crossed: Badlands.

Ennis’ Crossed stories are seen as the best of a franchise that varies wildly in quality, but the creator didn’t actually revisit his horror universe very often. There are only three spin-off stories by Ennis outside the original Crossed miniseries, with the other two (‘The Fatal Englishman’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’) following the former security team of Prime Minister Gordon Brown (himself criticized by the story as fatally indecisive.)

Given this sparse collection of the ‘best’ Crossed stories, it’s entirely possible that future adaptations may choose to adapt ‘Of the World and Its Becoming.’ If that’s the case, it will be interesting to see how today’s creators handle ‘Harry’ – whether the character is recreated exactly, separated from his royal backstory, or used to critique a different public figure. Crossed is known for having no mercy on its characters, but in the case of Prince Harry, it didn’t exactly spare the real person either.

Source: Noah Dominguez, Comic Book Resources