Why ‘Red, White and Royal Blue’ Movie Has a King Instead of a Queen

Modifications are made in each book-to-movie adaptation, and Crimson, White and Royal Blue isn’t any totally different. Nevertheless, director Matthew López was fascinated about future generations of viewers when he made one change — swapping a queen for a king.

“Nicely, there have been two causes. One, I used to be attempting to actually differentiate as a lot as potential our fictional royal household from the precise royal household,” López, who cowrote the movie with Ted Malawer, solely informed Us Weekly.

Amazon Studios’ Crimson, White and Royal Blue tells the enemies-to-lovers story of the British Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) and Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the primary feminine President of the USA (Uma Thurman). The fictional British royal household is steeped in custom and King James III (Stephen Fry) makes it clear that he needs Henry to remain within the closet. Casey McQuiston‘s best-selling novel depicted comparable circumstances — however with a personality known as Queen Mary.

López realized early on that he needed to make the change, revealing they solid the function in fall 2021, one yr earlier than Queen Elizabeth II died at age 96. “Whereas Her Majesty was nonetheless alive on the time, I additionally knew that for many of the lifetime of this movie, most individuals will entry it whereas there’s a King of England,” the director informed Us. “Between King Charles, Prince William, Prince George — for many of our lifetime, there’ll at all times be King of England. And so, I needed to type of ensure that the movie in some methods made sense to individuals for 100 years.”

There was another quite simple — and comprehensible — purpose he needed to commerce the queen for a king. “I had an opportunity to get Stephen Fry in, and I simply couldn’t flip that down. Numerous issues went into that call, and I believe a very powerful one was Stephen Fry needed to do it. You don’t say no to Stephen Fry,” López mentioned with a chuckle.

Nor may he say no to adapting Crimson, White and Royal Blue. López learn McQuiston’s debut novel shortly after it was printed in 2020 on the advice of certainly one of his brokers. It didn’t take lengthy for the Tony Award winner to attach with the fabric and decide he needed to make his function movie directorial debut with RWRB.

“I fell head over heels in love with it, as most individuals who learn it [do],” López informed Us. “I fell head over heels in love with it — with the characters, the blissfully ridiculous conditions that they discover themselves in. And I simply actually needed it. I can’t clarify it apart from to say that I simply needed to dwell in that world a little bit longer, and I actually noticed a film, and so I put my hand up and actually lobbied. I extra than simply put my hand up. I lobbied for the job, to make this movie.”

He related with Alex, the president’s son who has his personal political aspirations. Alex is holding a grudge towards Henry, and the pair have an altercation on the royal marriage ceremony that sends them tumbling into the cake. To do injury management after their “Buttercream Summit” pictures go viral, their households and respective handlers power the 2 boys right into a staged “truce” — which turns into all too actual after Alex and Henry understand they’ve much more in frequent than they ever knew.

When López was studying the e-book, it was Alex that actually resonated with him.

“I believe it has lots to do with my connection to Alex as a personality. I’m a biracial queer man from the American South. My mother’s white, my dad is Puerto Rican. Alex, his dad is Mexican. And so I believe there’s a component of Alex … that I associated to in my very own means,” López shared. “I believe that actually was my in. I’d by no means learn a e-book with a personality like Alex at its middle, and I’ve by no means seen a film with a personality like Alex on the middle. I believe there was one thing I actually needed to type of assist ensure that got here into the world as intact as potential.”

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Crimson, White and Royal Blue debuts on Amazon Prime Friday, August 11.