Four years after becoming a New York Times Bestseller, American author Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue is getting the movie treatment. Landing on Prime Video on August 11, the BookTok favourite follows the secret romance between the son of the US President, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), and Henry, Britain’s royal spare (Nicholas Galitzine). Having let their ongoing feud cause an international incident – more on that later – the high-profile and sickeningly good-looking pair are forced on a diplomatic mission to play nice. And given the flick’s R-rating, play nice they do.
The result is funny and smart, a mix of Heartstopper earnestness and the royal silliness of 2004 Julia Stiles romcom The Prince and Me. It even shoehorns in that iconic British insult, ‘bellend’. The early reviews are taking over the internet too, with its ‘A+ casting ‘ and the two leads’ ‘electric chemistry’ both drawing praise, along with its fun but meaningful depiction of same-sex love. Here are six reasons why Red, White & Royal Blue is shaping up to be the surprise romcom hit of the summer.
1. It gets sexuality right
Unlike other LGBTQ+ romcoms of late that have somewhat missed the mark – we’re looking at you Happiest Season and Bros – Red, White & Royal Blue is nuanced and informative, without being preachy. It’s made crystal clear that Alex is bisexual, not gay, and we get a fly-on-the-wall view of the real talk that goes on around who does what when it comes down to, well, getting down. Then there’s a heartwarming scene between Alex and his mother about safe sex as a bi man. Clear intentions, no STIs, and some advice from mum: a lesson for all.
2. It’s the perfect post-‘Barbie’ follow-up
Thought Barbie was the most progressive film of the summer? Red, White and Royal Blue’s ‘lovesick homosexuals’ are here to make you think again. Consider the fact that the US President and the British PM are both women (President Ellen Clermont is played by Uma Thurman with a southern drawl; the PM is played by Olivier Award winner Sharon D Clarke). Diversity is everywhere here – Alex Claremont is Latinx and bisexual – even in the politics (the President is a Democrat from Texas). Oh, and the woman in Number 10 is Black. It’s a very modern, very inclusive kind of romcom.
3. It has serious cheek
Written by Matthew Lopez, a Tony-winning playwright best known for ‘The Inheritance’, a play about gay men in New York a decade after the AIDS epidemic, it’s packed with zingers. When Alex is forced to do damage control after finding himself shoulder-deep in a Victoria sponge, his mum’s Chief of Staff (Sarah Shahi) hits him with a pithy recap of his diplomatic mission: ‘The sun shines out of [Prince Henry’s] ass and you have a Vitamin D deficiency.’ The raunchy double entendres (‘Your Royal Hardness’, ‘My NDA is bigger than yours’) also keep the pair’s love/hate dynamic in Carry On-style sauce.
4. It’s Sarah Shahi’s time to shine
Sarah Shahi (above), an actress best known for groundbreaking LGBTQ+ drama The L Word and more recently Netflix’s Sex/Life, may not be a familiar name to everyone. The Red, White & Royal Blue is about to change all that. She steals the film as Zahra Bankston, POTUS’s right-hand woman who spins the heck out of Alex and Henry’s secret tryst. In one stand-out scene where she discovers the ‘woman’ Alex has been hiding in his wardrobe is in fact a man and a British royal, she declares she will ‘Brexit’ Henry’s head from his body, before curtsying Meghan Markle style. The Oval Office belongs to her.
5. It’s got a jukebox of queer bangers
Joan Jett’s legendary banger ‘Bad Reputation’ accompanies the film’s sliding doors moment, when Alex and Henry fall into a £75,000 cake, and it sets the bar high for the rest of the soundtrack. Two more queer icons, Dolly Parton and Carly Rae Jepsen, feature with ‘Here You Come Again’ and ‘Call Me Maybe’, and gay and bi superstars, Elton John and Freddie Mercury, make their mark with ‘Your Song’ and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. Basically, it’s a playlist of Mighty Hoopla bangers you can enjoy sans sequins and sunburn.
6. Its vision of Britishness will cheer us all up
Like Bridgerton before it, you can usually tell when a look at British life comes courtesy of Americans, because London doesn’t exist outside SW10 and there’s always someone called ‘Philip’ floating around. But what Red, White & Royal Blue lacks in royal authenticity – note that Henry is the ‘Prince of England’, not Wales – it makes up for in Richard Curtis-esque whimsy. Have your bingo card of stereotypical British references ready and be prepared to tick off Jaffa Cakes, Bake Off, boarding school, rugby, the V&A, Zadie Smith, and the word ‘bellend’. We haven’t felt this British since that Taylor Swift song about going to the pub.
The Red, White & Royal Blue streams on Prime Video from Aug 11.