Red, White, & Royal Blue: How Faithfully Will The Rom-Com Movie Adapt The Book?

Released in 2019, Casey McQuiston's queer romantic comedy "Red, White & Royal Blue" took the literary world by storm, earning a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning an award for Best Debut at that year's Goodreads Awards. It should come as absolutely no surprise that it ended up scoring a film adaptation, considering just how popular this imagined reality where America's First Son fell in love with the younger son of the British royal family turned out to be... and writer-director Matthew López opened up to Glamour about how true the adaptation — which hits Amazon Prime on August 11 — will be to McQuiston's book.

Speaking to the magazine, López — who won a Tony for his play "The Inheritance" and is making his directorial debut with "Red, White & Royal Blue" — said that, while the story sticks to McQuiston's novel pretty faithfully, some changes came about naturally. "Casey has been an incredible source of support for me throughout the making of this film," López said, acknowledging that McQuiston is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. 

"I respect them for being appropriately protecting of the novel and am grateful to them for also giving me space to tell my own version of their story," the writer-director continued." Obviously when translating a nearly 500-page book to the screen, there are things you have to lose and things you will need to change. It is an adaptation, not a recitation. I like to think that, as a fan of the novel, I was able to find the balance of serving Casey's story while also serving the needs of the movie."

For the uninitiated, "Red, White & Royal Blue" focuses on the enemies-to-lovers journey between Prince Henry and Alex Claremont-Diaz, played by Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez, respectively. Galitzine told Glamour that the collaboration between McQuiston and López on set led to some incredibly organic moments making it to the screen, including some great new ones between Henry and Alex.

"I remember Casey coming in on a really fun day," Galitzine said. "It was a scene where Taylor and I were bickering in that sort of Alex/Henry banter way that we do, and it gave us time to talk to Casey and understand the influences that went into the book. We obviously have a lot of fan service, and I hope they love my interpretation of Henry."

This perfectly echoes what López said about making the movie, which is that, despite its incredible cast of supporting characters — which includes Uma Thurman as Alex's mother, President Ellen Claremont — the movie had to center around Galitzine and Perez's chemistry and the relationship between their characters. "If there was one lesson I kept learning over and over while making this film it's that if it's not about Alex or Henry, it doesn't belong in the film," López said.

Fans of "Red, White & Royal Blue" love this funny, sweet, and compulsively readable book for many reasons, and its inclusivity is definitely one of them; a story like this centered on two men and that features a ton of other queer characters is something new and exciting, and López appreciates this in an extremely specific and personal way.

"I never imagined I'd read a book with a queer Latine character at the center—a character who is smart and passionate and flawed and hopeful," López said, speaking about Alex Claremont-Diaz. "I think having this book in my life when I was younger might have made it a little easier. I knew immediately that I wanted to bring it to the screen."

Beyond that, he also revealed that the chemistry between Perez and Galitzine is incredible, which is easy to see even in the promotional photos. "They were a dream come true," the director said about his two stars. "Taylor and Nick have an astonishing chemistry together. You could see it from their first audition together. They genuinely liked and trusted each other from the start. And individually they each take these characters and make them their own. I cannot imagine any other actor playing these roles, and I haven't from the moment I first met them."

"Red, White & Royal Blue" will stream on Amazon Prime on August 11, 2023, so whether you're a fan of the book or new to this story, you won't want to miss out.