Red, White & Royal Blue, the long-awaited adaptation of the bestselling novel by Casey McQuiston, is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. This queer romantic comedy tells the story of Alex, the son of the first female President of the United States, and Henry, the Prince of England. When we meet the two young men at the start of the movie, they share a deep mutual dislike of each other: but as anyone who has ever even read the Wikipedia plot summary of Pride & Prejudice will be able to tell you, that’s fertile ground for a swoony enemies-to-lovers romance.
Expectations have been high for this movie. The book became a word-of-mouth sensation when it was published in 2019, with fan art and favorite quotes proliferating across the internet. And while Red, White & Royal Blue excises several characters and storylines in order to tell a simpler, broader story, it stays true to the “personal is political” theme of the novel: Alex and Henry’s budding romance is complicated by their queer identities and their very public positions.
Of course, any time a phenomenally popular book gets adapted into a movie, there is always the question of whether it has franchise potential, and an epic love story with elements of The Crown and The West Wing certainly sounds like something with longevity.
The film, much like the novel, concludes its storyline pretty definitively: after Alex and Henry are outed in the “Waterloo Letters” and forced to go public with their relationship, the movie flashes forward several months, and the couple get their much-deserved happy ending, which stays loyal to the book.
So how likely is a sequel?
Will there be a Red, White & Royal Blue sequel?
At present, Amazon Studios have announced no plans to make a sequel, although that could change if the movie proves suitably popular. Casey McQuiston has also not written a second novel featuring Alex and Henry, so there is no source material for another movie.
However, if you are not quite ready to let go of these guys and their larger-than-life love affair, fear not. In October 2022, McQuiston released a special edition of the novel which includes a bonus chapter told from Prince Henry’s perspective (the rest of the book is narrated by Alex). Is there enough there to inspire a whole new movie? The romantic in me says yes.
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
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