Celebrating all the changes for the film adaptation: Red, White & Royal Blue Movie
As the Red, White & Royal Blue movie continues to garner attention all around the globe, it seems new people are also now picking up the source material of the same name written by Casey McQuiston. If you were a fan of the book first, you’d know that the film adaptation made some changes to the story in order to fit Henry’s (Nick Galitizine) and Alex’s (Taylor Zakhar Perez) love story into a feature film.
Often, when filmmakers do this to the source material, the adapted version tends to fall flatter than the original story. However, this is not the case for the Red, White & Royal Blue movie, and director Matthew Lopez completely knocked it out of the park with this film adaptation.
During production, it became clear that the characters of June and Raphael Luna didn’t make it into the film. Because of the pivotal roles each of these characters played in Alex’s life in the book, hardcore fans were very nervous about how this would play out on screens. However, just a few minutes into the film adaptation showed audiences that this was not going to be an issue with this production.
Journey with us as we celebrate all the changes Matthew Lopez made to the film adaptation of Red, White & Royal Blue that made the story even better.
King vs Queen
In the source material, Henry’s grandparent who initially poses opposition to his relationship with Alex is a Queen and not a King. The book was written and released well before Queen Elizabeth passed away, but the script for the film adaptation was also written before she passed as well.
However, Lopez has actually spoken on this issue already, stating that when he made the change, he was thinking of future generations of viewers that would come to the story. As we are now living in the era of King Charles, it seems like that change was an apt one.
Furthermore, the King in the film adaptation is played by none other than the legendary Stephen Fry. There is something ironically hilarious about the clearly homophobic King of England being played by a gay man. His screen time is short, but his impact is great!
Alex’s sexual experience
In the source material, Alex is pretty clueless about his sexuality before Henry comes along. Even though he did some fooling around in high school with a guy called Liam, this doesn’t register with him that he could be anything other than straight. Because of this, in the book, there is a whole bisexual awakening and coming out that he has to do to the people around him.
In the film adaptation, Alex already has some sexual history with men before Henry falls onto his radar. He mentions to Nora (Rachel Hilson) that he fooled around with someone in high school as well as Miguel, the political reporter (Juan Castano) – who is clearly still interested in Alex and definitely trying to get him back in bed.
This small change adds a depth and complexity to Alex’s character that we didn’t know we needed to see! It’s really nice to see him just fall in love with Henry without all the self-exploration and questioning that goes along with realizing that you’re into the same sex. There are plenty of coming-out stories already available within queer media spaces, and although the original story did include that component to it, the film adaptation works so artfully without it.
We love this version of Alex, who doesn’t descend into a sexual identity crisis, and just instead chases his heart as Henry worms his way into Alex’s life.
Alex in Texas
In the source material, Alex is not sent to Texas to do campaign week for his mother’s re-election. In fact, he is removed from the campaign because of his connection to Henry. This is completely removed from the story in the film adaptation and Alex is sent to Texas to work on the Texas Strategy Memo he pitches to Zahra (Sarah Shahi).
We love this change because it gives us hope! Right before the movie was released, McQuiston released a special edition of the book with an additional chapter written from Henry’s perspective. In this chapter, Henry and Alex are preparing for a move to Texas after living in Brooklyn together while Alex works his way through law school and the first stages of his law career.
This change in the film adaptation lends itself to this development in their future. This makes us excited and gives us hope that maybe, just maybe, our beloved story isn’t over yet.
Furthermore, by sending Alex to Texas to work like this shows just how intelligent the dude really is. This is demonstrated well through his emails to Henry in the book, but most of those had to be removed from the film adaptation. Lopez finding a different way to ensure Alex’s big, beautiful brain wasn’t left out of the story was heart-warming and incredibly well done!
Changes to Henry
We’ve written about this before, but Henry in the film is slightly different from the Henry that exists in the pages of the book. Henry in the book is melancholy and carries an air of depression with him wherever he goes. Despite the fact that he kisses Alex first in the book, just like he does in the movie, he isn’t as forward or confident as Henry in the film adaptation in his pursuit of Alex.
We were deeply in love with the version of Henry that we met in the book, but we are also firmly in love with this version of Henry too. While most of the melancholy that made us fall in love with him is removed from the film, he brings humor and a verbal sparring partner for the version of Alex that exists on the screen.
This version of Henry is wonderful in his own right and we will be eternally grateful to Matthew Lopez for gifting him to us all.
In short, even though it doesn’t follow the source material exactly, the Red, White & Royal Blue movie is perfect in its own right. The changes that were made were necessary, but it brings us nothing but joy to report that they also enhanced the story, instead of detracting from it. Will we ever get tired of streaming this film adaptation? Nah, we don’t think so!
Red, White & Royal Blue is available to stream on Amazon Prime globally now. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
