Casey McQuiston’s instant New York Times bestselling novel “Red White & Royal Blue” was easily a pandemic-era TikTok — or, should I say “BookTok” — win, turned beloved Amazon Prime LGBTQ+ romantic comedy. It’s also got social media sleuths on the internet hungry for a Thanksgiving scene.

While the story has deep international complications, it’s a series of recent press runs, the addition of McQuiston’s novel to the Library of Congress’s National Collection, a handful of pandemic complications and a months-long SAG-AFTRA strike that left fans of the (rated R) film echoing The West Wing’s iconic line: “So, what’s next?”

In the spirit of the “mouthful” that is Alexander Gabriel Claremont-Diaz, I’ve made a safe-for-work short list of movie hits and misses that definitely weren’t curated via WTOP newsroom discussions about the movie and book.

1. ‘Go back to America.’ This movie asks you to feel the D.C. fantasy.
2. ‘History, huh?’ Amazon explains why this movie made some.
3. ‘Thanksgiving Scene?!’ Looking at what’s missing and suspending disbelief.
4. ‘Forced Conformity of the Closet’ Challenging current and future LGBTQ casting critiques.
5. ‘See attached bibliography’ Reading the novel makes the movie a breeze.
6. ‘So, What’s Next’ Because an unforgettable sequel can definitely outdo the first.

(And, yes, this is a more glowing, reference-riddled review when compared to briefly dubbing the movie a “beach read” with some “vanilla soft serve” elements. Settle in and grab a bit of popcorn, gurlie.)

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The summer 2023 release stars Taylor Zakhar Perez (of The Kissing Booth and Minx) as Alex Claremont-Diaz, the politically savvy son of the first woman President of the United States, Ellen Claremont (played by Uma Thurman). Perez acts opposite Nicholas Galitzine (of Amazon’s Cinderella — and the recently released song ‘Comfort’) as a fictional Britain’s beloved Prince Henry of Wales.

So, this enemies-to-lovers story sparks, for the viewer, with Perez and Galitzine’s characters essentially ignoring each other at a royal wedding in London. One buttercream-covered summit later, the Prince and First Son of the United States are buried beneath several layers of $75,000 cake.

From here, the story leans heavily into Alex and his bad blood with Prince Henry as their not-so-diplomatic cake incident offers a chance to bond. That is, after receiving a full rebuke from Uma Thurman in a lightly decorated Oval Office and Deputy Chief of Staff Zahra Bankston (a Howard University grad played by Sarah Shahi).

Now, Alex’s plate expands from Georgetown Law student with high political ambitions to fake friend and budding romantic interest of a prince.

Visions of the fictionalized D.C. span coffee shops, Georgetown University lectures, White House residences and, of course, a New Year’s Eve party on the White House lawn set to Get Low by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz.

Can you guess what happens?

A New Year’s Kiss and Perez’s character Alex is singularly focused on Galtizine’s Henry. So much so that you almost forget we’re in the District.

For those of you with the ability to think not about the subtle D.C. flags and statehood memorabilia adorning most portions of the region, it’s easy to ignore the feeling that the visual is a little too perfect. Likewise, politicos around the region are likely to see the faults in political processes — campaigning and international relations seem too unreal for some.

The movie’s response: Focus on the relationship forming between Alex and Henry.

Text messages, magazine photos and minutes spent coordinating with staff — for Alex, Secret Service agent Amy (played by Aneesh Sheth) and Prince Henry’s equerry Shaan Srivastava (played by Akshaye Khanna) — keep you locked into the romance.

Don’t focus on an unreal sunset from the White House lawn during Alex’s conversation with his father and Congressman Oscar Diaz (played by Clifton Collins Jr). Don’t focus on the speed with which we move past classes at Georgetown Law. Instead, focus on the love. Enjoy the feel-good, Hallmark-RomCom-but-make-it-LGBTQ energy.

Make it out of your D.C. cocoon and you’ll reach some golden nuggets: Campaign events in Texas, speeches from White House press briefing rooms, Henry’s presence in the District through personified text messages and a West Wing-inspired character in Alex.

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If the numbers don’t lie, this movie was a banger for Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime noted that RW&RB, directed by Matthew López (behind The Inheritance and MJ the Musical on Broadway), hit #1 on Prime Video on its premier weekend, quickly becoming one of the platform’s top three most-watched romantic comedy films of all time.

The feat was so historic it received speedy praise from GLAAD.

“The tremendous initial success of Prime Video’s ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ sends a clear message that entertainment with LGBTQ-lead stories can be hits with audiences and by industry standards,” GLAAD executive Anthony Allen Ramos said in a statement. “The fact that the film is already the streamer’s third most watched romantic comedy ever and that memberships to the platform have spiked related to its premiere also prove that the fringe anti-LGBTQ activists who are attacking inclusive entertainment are both wrong from a moral sense, but also from a business sense.”

Ramos went on to highlight that all parts of RW&RB were clear evidence that more stories and films like this one resonate with audiences.

“The phenomenal debut of Red, White & Royal Blue is a true testament to the entertaining and inspired storytelling led by the creative minds behind it,” Amazon MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke said in the statement.

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Debut aside, strengths and weaknesses surface in the on-screen changes made to bring Casey McQuiston’s novel to life.

If you plan on reading the book or haven’t watched the movie, feel free to avert your eyes from here. I wouldn’t want to yuck your yum. 

While Henry George Edward James Hanover-Stuart Fox and Alexander Gabriel Claremont Diaz have a ton of steamy, physical scenes in this film, the story gaps can be a bit more obvious than you would expect.

Some surface in more passionate scenes between Prince Henry and the First Son, Alex. After a White House Red Room encounter, for example, Alex seductively threatens Prince Henry with what could conservatively qualify as “a good time” during a State Dinner at the White House.

“At midnight, you’re going to come to my room on the second floor of the residence where I’m going to do some very bad things to you,” Alex says to a distracted Henry.

Here’s the thing: Aside from Henry being late to their rendezvous, there’s no destruction to see. Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine share a continuation of their passionate kiss moments before and an off-screen mouth-on-skin interaction. It’s not quite the “very bad thing” you expect, nor does it square with the expectations from similar R-rated movies with heterosexual love interests.

Most of the minutes that follow are similarly “vanilla,” watchable with headphones in public, with one plane exception.

Other issues arise when the film near-begs you to raise suspension of disbelief. Critical speeches and heartfelt moments can also feel out of place, though not entirely unwarranted, in Red White & Royal Blue.

For what it’s worth, this is a romantic comedy. This inconceivable Cinderella-esque, Prince-meets-First-Son plot after a win for the first female president in 2016 is just that: inconceivable. So, let’s live in the fantasy.

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If you haven’t read the book, it’s the implied plot developments, assumptions and unanswered questions that could prove difficult to navigate.

Why go without that campfire scene at the lake that so developed Alex and Henry’s relationship? How, exactly, does information like the entirety of someone’s emails leak to the press? Why is Alex living in the White House while a (graduate) student at Georgetown (Law)?

To answer these questions, the book boasts a cast of family, friends, underhanded politicians and passersby. The movie finds it’s way by grabbing MSNBC prime-time stars like Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid, creating a WikiLeaks-sized Politico reporter named Miguel Ramos (played by Juan Castano) and stretching characters like Nora Holleran (played by Rachel Hilson) to fill the role of sister and close friend.

And while the broader screen adaptations aren’t bad, they definitely can feel off to a first-time viewer.

“I will not be the first woman to lose reelection to this office,” President Claremont tells Alex in the White House before dropping a document on the resolute desk.

“What is that?” Alex asks before Thurman’s character says, “Our latest internal polling.”

“Richards,” President Claremont’s Republican challenger, “is killing me in the Rust Belt. That’s where we need to focus, not Texas. You’re being idealistic when I need you to be realistic.”

Thurman’s character, the sitting president, forgets key pieces of her political history, meriting a correction reminiscent of Sam Seaborn from Perez’s character before agreeing with the first son’s decision. Alex is a budding political icon, and the president is, well, the president.

So why is President Ellen Claremont forgetting critical points in her political career? Why are we speeding through this make-or-break moment for Alex’s run with the campaign?

McQuiston’s Prince and FOTUS have a bigger friend group, stronger family relationships and explicit encounters with violence and mental illness. Those real, tangible and dark characters are deeper but much more distant compared to Galitzine and Perez’s competitive, tit-for-tat portrayals.

Of course, López, scripting alongside Ted Malawer, said these changes to the movie world were worthwhile and that he only retained what was necessary to develop Alex and Henry’s relationship.

Thankfully, some key lines and emails were among the items necessary to depict the relationship.

Note: Don’t ask my colleagues about my visceral response to the moment Henry emails Alex the sentence “Should I tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams?” McQuiston can collect a bag from me personally for this one.

On-screen, Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez as Henry and Alex definitely work to portray LGBTQ+ physical and romantic intimacy. However, it’s portrayals of LGBTQ people by those who aren’t identified as such off-screen that present a challenge.

While both Perez and Galitzine shared gratitude for the opportunity to portray these characters, thanking fans of the film and novel, their roles also surfaced common questions about who can be cast to portray marginalized groups without effectively taking opportunities from those communities.

In interviews, Matthew López has said that he guided the production toward authentic representations of gay relationships, leaning into his own life experiences.

When it came to casting Galitzine and Perez, he also highlighted a key theme in Red White & Royal Blue: a right to privacy.

“This is about privacy and the fundamental right of self-determination which are exactly the principles on which the struggle for queer liberation has always been fought,” Perez’s character Alex says.

Some stars, like Heartstoppers actor Kit Connor, found themselves unexpectedly outed by potentially well-meaning fans and critics trying to determine if the production was adequately representing LGBTQ+ people.

However, as Alex says in his speech on being outed in the press, the right to share or conceal a sexual orientation doesn’t evaporate the moment you enter the public eye.

“The truth is every queer person has the right to come out on their own terms, and on their own timeline. They also have the right to choose not to come out at all,” Claremont-Diaz says. “The forced conformity of the closet can not be answered with the forced conformity in coming out of it.”

In short: sexual orientation is among those many private parts of a person that are developing and not inherently for public consumption. If we’re learning from this film, revisiting these surface-level critiques and instead looking at the quality and depth of representation will go much further than any assumption or inquiry into any person’s undisclosed or disclosed sexuality.

Remember, things change. People change.

This particular movie has stuck with the most talkative parts of me (per colleagues in the WTOP newsroom) for a ton of reasons. The most important: there’s more work left to do.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the fanbase around Red White & Royal Blue has continued to trend, pushing for a much-discussed, potentially cut Thanksgiving scene, which has been all but previewed by internet sleuths across X and Instagram.

Meanwhile, the cast and crew, who definitely haven’t been sharing a deluge of behind-the-scenes content via social media post-strike, have continued to stoke the flames as deleted scenes crop up from Prime Studios.

So, why not focus on tomorrow?

Since Red White & Royal Blue the movie is a match to the book’s conclusion, minus McQuiston’s brief epilogue chapter, this movie’s ending could be it for fans.

“I would love to do a sequel — if we have the right story. I think there has to be a better reason than simply the desire to make one. There has to be a compelling story reason,” López said in an interview with Teen Vogue. “I don’t think a sequel is a bad idea, but I don’t think a sequel for the sake of doing a sequel is necessarily sufficient.”

I contend, however, that a sequel feels all but necessary with so many puzzle pieces left in the box and a busy McQuiston saying they aren’t done with this universe just yet. And why should they be?

There are gaps in the screen adaptation that are well worth following — how the crown and the U.S. navigate this relationship in a second Claremont term, details on how this Politico reporter got his hands on emails from a White House server, a story from a New York Brownstone or D.C. Row House as Alex considers a political future, a royal wedding or even a portrait.

Digressing for the sake of my editors, I note that a future movie could clarify the bond between these two characters and slow down to explore real life: those cacoon phases of Henry’s that so many people navigating depression experience, the challenge of a public relationship with so many international ties.

Most importantly, it ensures that my colleagues and internet denizens don’t continue to spiral.

For now, whether for better or worse, we’ll need to fix our eyes elsewhere. Perhaps we let this beach read simmer, grab an ice cream cone brimming with vanilla soft serve and give McQuiston time to enjoy the release of yet another book.

Editor’s Note: I reached out to publicists for McQuiston for comments on the franchise and connections to the District. McQuiston was unavailable for an interview ahead of publication. This piece was originally pitched for publication with WTOP News.