Three years after Casey McQuiston’s novel made bestsellers’ lists in the US, the fun, alternate-reality gay romcom’s film adaptation has just started filming in England.

The story depicts a secret romance between the fictional son of the United States’ first female president, and a fictional British prince. Set in a much more progressive world than our own, the two young high-profile men have been butting heads ever since they were kids. As they grow into their twenties, a scuffle quickly devolves into an international scandal, with both sides needing to pull off some much-needed public relations damage control.

What starts off as a publicity stunt intended to portray the pair as good friends, quickly gets out of control as the two develop feelings for each other, with major political consequences for the world’s nations.

Taylor Zakhar Perez will play Alex Claremont-Diaz, the US’ first son, while Nicholas Galitzine will play Prince Henry of England. Galitzine already has experience playing a royal, having been cast as Prince Robert alongside Camila Cabello’s Cinderella, back in 2021. Perez, meanwhile, might draw your attention as Marco Valentin Peña from teen romcom series The Kissing Booth.

The show also has an interesting casting through Uma Thurman who will play Alex’s mother, President Claremont.

McQuiston has been quite pleased with the adaptation team’s treatment of her original work. “I absolutely can’t wait to see Taylor and Nicholas on screen as Alex and Henry,” she said. Director Matthew López (who is openly gay), also shared his enthusiasm for the project, praising the efforts of its two leads.

“Meeting with and auditioning literally hundreds of actors over these past several months has been a painstaking labor of love that has brought us this diverse and extraordinary cast, led so fantastically by Nick and Taylor,” said López to Variety. “I cannot wait for the fans of the book (and indeed for the world) to find out how remarkably gifted and perfect these two actors are for bringing Henry and Alex to life.”

The film will be López’s first feature film. The same year the RWRB novel was written, he wrote and directed the Tony-award winning play The Inheritance, which explored the dynamics between a group of young gay men in New York a decade after the AIDS epidemic.

Currently, the film crew have spent a couple weeks on set with Perez sharing a happy photo from the steps of his vanity van earlier this month:

Red, White, & Royal Blue is expected to release in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video.

(Featured Image Credits: Aneesh Sheth/Twitter)