A bunch of steamy book to screen adaptation have been released lately, including Red White & Royal Blue (which is streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription) and the megahit series Heated Rivalry (streaming with a HBO Max subscription). Both of these projects told queer love stories, that also featured some viral sex scenes between its stars. Actor Taylor Zakhar Perez will soon reprise his role as Alex Claremont-Diaz in Red, White & Royal Wedding, and spoke to why these titles are so wildly popular.
Red, White & Royal Blue is one of the sexiest movies streaming on Amazon, and helped to make household names out of its stars. During a recent interview with GQ, Perez spoke about his burgeoning franchise's popularity, and it's connection to Heated Rivalry. As he put it:
I saw a lot of the same elements of Red, White in Heated Rivalry. I think they work so well because it wasn’t just about sex, it was so much about intimacy—and we crave intimacy because it’s a lot less fleeting than sex is. I think they told a really beautiful story over a long period of time. That made it very universal. Anyone can watch it and relate to that type of longing that you have for somebody—maybe it’s like a forbidden love—and what you have to do to either overcome that hurdle or just crash into each other and say yes.
Points were made. While Heated Rivalry's first sex scene gripped audiences, the show's story is largely about tension and the way two closeted hockey players found love. The same can be said for Red, White & Royal Blue, which has viral love scenes but was mostly about star-crossed lovers finding each other as public figures. And in that way, both of where projects told a universal story that audiences could relate to... regardless of their background or sexuality.
By comparison, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine had way less sex scenes that the cast of Heated Rivalry, which is a sexually explicit HBO project that features a ton of them throughout Season 1. Still, they did some vulnerable work, and their love scenes helped to move the overall story forward. And Red, White & Royal Blue was so popular that it's getting a sequel on Amazon.
What we know about Red, White & Royal Wedding is limited, but the movie will bring back its protagonists who are guests at the titular event. Fans are expecting more steamy scenes, as well as an update about how Alex and Prince Henry's relationship has moved forward since the first movie.
It's currently unclear when Red, White & Royal Wedding will be released, but fans are hoping the sequel will end up as part of the 2026 movie release list. And while Heated Rivalry was renewed for Season 2, it's similarly unclear when that'll be released.
