‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ star confirms their return for the highly anticipated sequel

A beloved character from ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ is set to return in the eagerly awaited sequel.

In August 2023, fans of LGBTQ+ cinema were thrilled by the film adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s celebrated novel. Directed by Matthew López, the Prime Video film features the passionate transformation of enemies to lovers between Alex (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of America’s first female President (played by Uma Thurman), and Henry (played by Nicholas Galitzine), a British prince.

Upon its release, ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ was praised for staying true to the original novel and for the vibrant chemistry between Zakhar Perez and Galitzine.

In May, after months of fan anticipation and speculation, Prime Video, along with López and McQuiston, caused a stir online by announcing a sequel.

“Yes, there’s gonna be a sequel,” the American playwright confirmed during a fan screening.

Author Casey McQuiston added, “Matthew and I are writing it together. That’s all we can say.”

Since then, fans have eagerly awaited news about ‘Red, White & Royal Blue 2’, particularly which cast members would be joining Zakhar Perez and Galitzine for the sequel.

As ‘Gay Times’ write, fans received a thrilling update when Sarah Shahi, during an interview with Collider, confirmed her return as Zarah Bankston, the President’s assertive Deputy Chief of Staff.

“Yes, I actually am returning for the sequel. Zahra is back,” she announced. “It still managed to break records and shatter the platforms that Amazon had at the point. I had never seen that coming. It did in one night what they thought the film would do at its best in three weeks. It was just huge,” she explained to the news outlet.

While Shahi did not reveal any plot details for the sequel, it is known that López and McQuiston are diligently working on the script.

In August 2024, López shed light on their creative process during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders TV: The Nominees.

“When we were starting this process, I kept saying that we’ll have to succeed at this adaptation…. if you feel the same way at the end, as you felt finishing the book,” he remarked.

“There’s no book to guide us, but what we have is Casey’s original thoughts and original ideas.”

In the same interview, Zakhar Perez shared his enthusiasm for returning to his role as first son Alex Claremont Diaz.

“He just has an endless waterfall of optimism rushing over him at all times, and he has just nonstop positivity,” he said excitedly.

“So, I think I’m excited to bring that back to the screen. And I think [with the] state of the world right now, we could use a little bit more of that.”