‘You’re taking me away from what I care about most’: ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ director had a good reason for removing a full hour from final cut

It’s time to forget foreign policy and familial expectations and get ready to cozy up with a love story for the ages in Prime Video’s Red, White & Royal Blue. The film — starring Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez as should-be enemies but soon-to-be lovers — debuts on the streaming platform in less than a day, and the anticipation couldn’t be higher.

With a story as layered and emotionally charged as that of Alex and Henry falling in love despite everything that dares keep them apart, fans might not be shocked to know that the runtime for the movie was initially three hours! Filmmaker Matthew López recently spoke with US Weekly about necessary cuts to ensure that the right story was being told in the now two-hour runtime.

“I watched the movie for the first time at the three-hour version of the movie that I first was given by my editor — and everything that wasn’t Alex and Henry had to go. I [felt], like, you’re taking me away from what I care most about, which is Alex and Henry in the movie. So my job as the filmmaker is to deliver Alex and Henry safely on to the end of the film. There’s about less than 20 seconds of the movie in which either one of them doesn’t appear.”

So how did the filmmaker decide what scenes to cut and which had to stay? It was simple; the scenes most important were all dictated by how important they were in the relationship between Alex and Henry.

“Why I say it wasn’t hard [to cut down] is that I quickly realized putting this movie together that, unlike the book, this movie was about Alex and Henry first, and first, middle, and last, everything, every decision that I made as the director of this film had to flow into, is it right for Alex and is it right for Henry? And is it right for them as a couple?”

Film adaptations of books have to choose a storytelling path, and we have a feeling that those who’ve read the novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston will be thrilled with what López has crafted for our screens. At the heart of it all sits the bond between Alex and Henry, in all the ways it ebbs and flows, and we can’t wait to see it unfold in front of us.

Red, White & Royal Blue begins streaming on Aug. 11 on Prime Video.