NewFest Young Royals Panel: Coded insights into Season 2

Today, at 12 noon in New York City, NewFest hosted some of the cast and crew from Young Royals to talk about the queer themes in the show, on set interactions, and what they could tease about season 2 (which drops on Netflix globally on November 1). The 35-minute panel was everything fans were expecting and Omar Rudberg, Edvin Ryding and creator Lisa Amjörn delivered an A-class interview. 

The interview was carefully coded so explicit information about the upcoming season of Young Royals wasn’t accidentally thrown out into the universe, but they didn’t fool us. Fam, we put our Young Royals detective hats on and attempted to decode all the things they said. 

We’d like to give a massive shoutout to NewFest for hosting our faves and giving us this opportunity to step into sleuth mode. Like y’all, we’re overly excited about the upcoming season, and we think there was much to learn about Young Royals season 2 from the happenings of this panel today. 

Put your detective boots on and walk with us as we step back through the panel and unpack the musings of Lisa, Edvin, and Omar. 

Wilhelm’s future

Edvin Ryding, who plays Wilhelm in the show, said very explicitly that he wants Wilhelm to evolve as a person in the upcoming season. In one of the most agreeable statements ever, Ryding says that Wilhelm is a very “complex character” and is clearly in the throes of getting to know himself.

“Obviously he loves Simon. He wants to be with Simon; is that possible? Is he prepared to give up the crown, or not?” says Ryding. 

Wait. 

WHAT?

Sir, please say more about the fact that your character is potentially thinking of walking away from the crown FOR A BOY?!

Ryding says that he feels like the audience deserves to see Wilhelm’s impulsivity this season, and fam, did he just say Wilhelm would be potentially, maybe, somehow willing to give up the crown for Simon? Our gay hearts might not survive it, if he does!

Thank you, Edvin Ryding, for giving us much to consider on this lovely NewFest day. Excuse us while we go and google the Swedish monarchy and all that entails “dating a boy as a prince, or possible abdication.”

Lose yourself before you find yourself

When the NewFest moderator asks Omar Rudberg what he wants for Simon (does he come into his power, does he not?) Omar responds with an answer that we consider to be deeply coded. He says he feels like Simon should stay where he is happy *coughs – by Wilhelm’s side – coughs*.

“I love him [Simon] and I want him and his family to be happy,” says Rudberg before hastily saying that he can’t comment about that anymore without spoiling information. 

All we could think about when he uttered these words was WHY ISN’T SIMON HAPPY, OMAR?

But Lisa Amjörn jumps in and actually gives fans an offering right out of season 2. She says that characters, particularly Simon, will have to do some “exploring” and that sometimes people have to lose themselves before they find themselves. 

Look, we don’t know about you, but this sounds an awful lot like Simon is about to take a long, hard walk down the yellow brick road of pain and get a little lost in the forest on the way to the castle. 

If we’re assuming Wilmon is endgame (we stand by this and we’re not taking questions at this time), this implies that in season 2, Simon walks in the opposite direction to which Wilhelm is headed and yo, what part of ‘we want warm fuzzies in season 2’ does this cater to? 

It doesn’t. Fam, it DOESN’T.

We’re going to take a break right now and head to Amazon and bulk buy all the kleenex because y’all, we can’t take much more angst at the hands of these idiots-who-are clearly-in-love-but-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-each-other. 

Omar Rudberg’s self-confidence

While there wasn’t anything coded about season 2 in this comment, Omar Rudberg said something that we found utterly beautiful and it was one of our favorite parts of the panel. The moderator asked what Omar learned about himself filming this show.

“Shooting Royals and everything, I really learned how to accept how I look and being confident in my own skin because there has been times where I’ve really felt out there,” says Rudberg. 

We’d like to remind everyone that although Omar Rudberg was a public performer before taking on the role of Simon, he had never been an actor before. Simon was his first role (can you believe it? We can’t), and for this character and this process to push him into a place where he feels more comfortable just being him, is a really beautiful thing. Snaps for Omar and thanks to Young Royals for giving him that opportunity. 

NewFest teased official picture 

At the end of the interview, the moderator got permission to share a new official promotional image from the upcoming season and Edvin Ryding challenged us all to detective the hell out of it. 

The Q+ Magazine staffers are not ones to shy away from a challenge and we stepped up to Mr Ryding’s plate with gusto. 

Here we go…

Firstly, Simon is wearing the purple hoodie (boy never takes it off). Purple is universally known as the color of royalty around the globe. We can’t be the only ones that noticed that from the moment Simon lays eyes on Wilhelm in season 1, the boy is doused in purple there forth (including in the scene where they do the dance with no pants and lawd, the symbolism of that alone had our minds spinning).

Secondly, Wilhelm and Simon are sitting together on what appears to be a gold throne of some kind. Simon and his purple hoodie is leaning into Willhem and their knees are touching, however Wilhlem is staring down the barrel of the camera looking like he is about to murder everyone. 

It is not lost on us that August (Malte Gårdinger) is not standing behind Wilhelm. If we had just released a sex tape of our cousin involved in naked shenanigans for probably the first time ever, we don’t think we would stand behind him either. We value our safety. However, August, the butt-munch, appears all too confident for our liking. This suggests that perhaps, just maybe, August does not deal with as many consequences as we want him to. 

Or does he?

The girls are holding hands, and while we advocate for everyone to be gay at all times, we don’t think that there are gay things happening here. We gotta say, Felice (Nikita Uggla) looks like she doesn’t have the first idea what is happening at all, and Sara (Frida Argento) is definitely looking at us challenging anyone who dares to tell her brother that she is a [redacted] who should [redacted].

Sorry Sara, not sorry.

We’re going to leave with this final thought. At the end of the NewFest panel, all three guests shared chosen emojis that expressed their feelings about season 2. All three of those emojis seem on brand for all the yelling that has already occurred since Q+ Magazine entered the Young Royals fandom. 

We’re going to keep our own emojis a secret for now…

Q+ Magazine is doing a revisit down season 1 lane beginning the 26th of October. The minute season 2 drops on November 1, we will be hosting Young Royals Palooza on our socials. This is an independent initiative that we are organizing as our contribution to help promote the show. Stand by for more information as it becomes available. We have a few surprises in store. 

If you want to watch the full panel in its entirety, you can do so here:

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Young Royals season 1 is currently available to watch on Netflix. Young Royals Season 2 will be available to stream on Netflix on November 1st globally. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!