Some Thoughts About the Red, White, and Royal Blue Sequel

 I woke up this morning to a tweet that there was going to be a sequel to Red, White, and Royal Blue. At first, I thought it was someone online playing a joke or doing wishful thinking, but as I looked briefly and found this article which confirmed that the sequel was in fact happening. Here is what we know for sure:

[1] Matthew Lopez and Casey McQuiston are writing the script.

[2] Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez are returning as Henry and Alex

And that's it. I have some thoughts and wanted to put them out there. First, I want to talk about a couple of plot possibilities. Then I want to look at some things I do or do not want to see in the sequel.

First, the plot. I really see two probable plots.

The first probable plot is that the movie follow Alex and Henry through their courtship and ends with their getting married. If they do this, they can incorporate the bonus chapter that Casey appended to the collector's edition of RWRB that came out in 2022. As a dramatic arc, they can have Henry and Alex learning how to navigate a public relationship when Alex wants to be in the public eye in order to get involved in politics and Henry very much does not want that. I think that would be fun to watch. They could have Henry abdicate, very much like he does in the bonus chapter, and have him run the queer youth shelters, again like he plans on doing in the book. It wouldn't be hard to have a brief bit of exposition that Percy signed over shelters for Henry to run shortly after the first movie.

The second probable plot is that Alex and Henry are already married and we get to watch them adjust to life as husbands. I find this one to be a bit less likely, because I think people would rise up in revolt if we don't get to see the FirstPrince wedding. Presumably, at this point, they would have learned how to live together and how to navigate their differences, so I'm not sure where the drama would come from here, unless they do some sort of artificially created drama, which would annoy me no end. I see this as the less likely possibility.

So now for things I do and do not want to see.

First thing that I have to say here is that I am a little apprehensive about doing a sequel. The fact that Casey and Matthew are writing it allay a lot of my fears, but I really don't want there to be a sequel just to have a sequel. I know Casey has said something similar in the past (at least about the book) and that FirstPrince is their baby, so the fact that they are involved in writing the sequel gives me hope. I really just want them to take the time to write a sequel worthy of the original and respectful of the fans. 

I do not want there to be artificially created drama like a love triangle or someone trying to get between them. That would just be annoying and stupid. The first movie revolved around Alex realizing he's bi and then he and Henry trying to figure out how to have a relationship as public figures. The drama all felt natural and unforced. If they throw in an old, dead trope like a love triangle or something, it will completely ruin their relationship. There has to be drama in order to have a movie, but the drama should center around the two of them trying to figure out how to live together and make their dreams work together.  We don't need soap opera or teen drama style storylines, just the everyday life of a power couple.

I want them to address the one question that the original never answered: did Miguel Ramos hack the emails or was he just notified about the hack? It is suggested that he was involved, but never answered. Again, this is something that could be addressed very quickly in some exposition.

I think they need to address what Henry does regarding his royal duties. We know that he does not like being in the public eye the way he has been and that he wants to be more of a private person. Given that and given Alex's stated desire to get involved in politics, I really see navigating this as the best possible plot for the sequel. It doesn't have to be (and should not be) a bunch of huge arguments, but rather a series of discussions about the boundaries of each of them and how they can work together without creating big issues between them. Again, nothing artificial or heightened, just normal relationship stuff that the two of them need to work out. Any heightened drama could be related to their wedding, which (given their stations and their families) could be quite amusing and fun. And it would be great to watch Uma Thurman and Stephen Fry butt heads.

Honestly, that's all I have right now. I expect the movie will be out in late 2025 at the earliest, but 2026 is more likely. It depends on how much has been written. There shouldn't need to be a ton of casting, so that should shorten up the timeframe somewhat.