Get ready, cause Red, White & Royal Blue is on its way!
The live-action film adaption of the best-selling gay romance novel has started filming, according to Prime Video. To celebrate this, the streaming service released a video on TikTok. In the video, which you can watch above, we see Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine joking around and bickering just like their characters.
“We are in London on the set of Red, White & Royal Blue,” Perez states.
“We are officially in production and we can’t wait to bring Henry and Alex’s story to life,” Galitzine adds before turning to Perez to say, “You know I’m taller, right?”
“In your dreams, man,” Perez responds.
“Like three inches. I’m like 6’5,” Galitzine continues.
Perez then replies, “Are we really doing this right now?”
Ever persistent, Galitzine then goes, “Yeah. Does someone have a measuring tape?”
Clearly, this little argument is a skit to get fans excited for the bickering to come in the movie. And you know what? It’s working!
@primevideo A word from the set of Red, White, and Royal Blue ❤️🤍💙 #RWRBMovie #taylorzakharperez #nicholasgalitzine #primevideo #rwrbmoviepv #bts
Related: Film Adaptation of Best-Selling Novel ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ is in the Works
But what is the story behind Red, White & Royal Blue? The story follows Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the current president to the United States of America. While Alex should be preparing for graduating college and his mother’s re-election, his life takes a turn for the romantic. While Alex originally considered British Prince Henry his mortal enemy, the relationship turns hot and heavy after a few misunderstandings are cleared. What follows is a passionate and romantic tale between two high profile young men in two turbulent countries.
Playing Alex Claremont-Diaz in this film adaption, which will stream on Amazon Prime Video, is Taylor Zakhar Perez. He’s best known for the roles of Shane on HBO Max’s Minx and Marco Valentin Peña in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth. Then starring opposite him is Nicholas Galitzine, who’s most known for playing Prince Robert in Prime Video’s Cinderella adaption (but don’t hold that against him too hard).
But at the same time as the film adaption begins production, the source material is entering headlines for different reasons. Book fans have recently discovered that the novel’s text has been updated to remove references to Harry Potter. In fact, five overt references to the Harry Potter books have been removed from recent print and digital copies.
Related: From Romance to Memoirs, Books to Read During Pride Month
This change was likely due to the series’ author, J.K. Rowling, constantly doubling down on transphobic rhetoric and activism. And seeing as Red, White & Royal Blue’s author, Casey McQuinston, is nonbinary, the changes make sense.
The changes were discovered and discussed recently over BookTok (the book lovers’ corner of TikTok), according to the Daily Dot. As for the references themselves, they include the following points:
- In one photo referenced, Henry’s dog is wearing a Slytherin scarf, and Alex laughs at this as he thinks Henry is a Hufflepuff. Henry then clarifies that his dog is the Slytherin, not him. But now, the book makes a Star Wars and Star Trek reference by having the dog wear a Starfleet uniform.
- Instead of calling Alex “Draco Malfoy-level obsessed” about Prince Henry, Nora, Alex’s best friend and the vice president’s granddaughter, now calls him “Joker-level obsessed.”
- At one point, Henry rants, “I don’t give a damn what Joanne has to say, Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long.” But he now rants that Bram Stoker was “gay as the day is long” and adds that Stoker’s “Dracula is essentially a work of queer erotica.”
- Lastly, two references to Alex having a worn-in copy of Prisoner of Azkaban have been changed to The Lightning Thief from the Percy Jackson
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce_KuJ-LZ4v/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
While McQuiston hasn’t directly addressed the new edits, they did make a recent post for Pride, that referenced hatred that queer and trans kids have received from “hateful adults” in recent months.
They wrote, “I hope they know how much we love them, and how ready we are to keep fighting for them with whatever we have, bricks and all.”
Source: The Daily Dot
A LOT of novels are going to need to be re-written, if that’s the bar that has been set.
I didn’t care for the book, and once again, two men who do not identify as gay (although one claims to be bi) are playing gay characters in a movie. What, some of our better gay actors weren’t available?
Yeah, the book was as boring and reductive as any other gay romance written by a woman (for largely female audiences). As much as I am glad to see that Call Me By Your Name was adapted but even Andrew Haigh ended up adapting a heterosexual fiction love story to make All of Us Strangers, so apparently we do not have enough decent gay fiction that’s actually written by gay males for a largely queer audience.
Agreed that while I don’t think studios will or need to cast openly gay actors in every role that calls for a gay character, there needs to be more of that happening and this was a particularly good project for that.
Excited for this gay movie to be released!! The 2 lead guys are very sexy indeed!