With the release of its final season’s stills on actors and writers socials’ alike, the hype has been
reignited for Netflix’s Young Royals this new year.
[Warning: Spoilers ahead!]
The images promise a continuation of all the emotions that drew fans to it in the first place: intimacy,
safety, drama, teen angst, and a satisfying, fairytale payoff of the foreshadowing from season
2’s finale and the final image is anything to go by.
But first a recap:
For those of you who don’t know, Young Royals follows the fictional prince of Sweden, Wilhelm’s,
tumultuous move to school for Sweden’s teen rich and elite Hillerska after damning viral videos
circle online of him getting involved in a scuffle outside of a bar – a last-ditch attempt by his
parents at straightening his image out, and the last chance of his freedom at being a ‘normal’
teenager taken away from him as he is thrust into life at Hillerska among Sweden’s richest kids.
The show’s opening coincidentally foreshadows the first season’s climax: how internet culture
amongst young people and the lack of privacy thanks to social media nowadays can be inherently
harmful and dangerous, especially for those in the public sphere.
The first season’s narrative follows Wilhelm as he settles into his new school amongst his peers,
develops a crush on the resident scholarship student, Simon, who is the only person who treats
him as an equal and gives him the chance to be normal as well as the responsibility he must take
on at the death of his older brother, Erik, the crown prince. Wille struggles even more than he had
prior to the weight of his newfound responsibilities as crown prince and all of his parents’ as
well as the rest of the world’s expectations, he must now live up to. It seems, that at the end of the
series, that he must do so to the detriment of himself and his well-being: his ever-present anxiety
worsening as he cracks under the pressure and blooming relationship crumbling as his mother
encourages him to remain silent and deny deny deny after an intimate video of the two leaks
online and goes viral.
Season 2 is, at the crux of it all, the journey of growth both Wille and Simon must go through in
order to become better versions of themselves – not just for one another, but for themselves, so
that they can find a sense of purpose and solidity within themselves. The season follows the two
as they inevitably dance around each other again and work out the kinks and knots in their
relationship, eventually concluding that they do want to be together and that Wille
is going to own up to his being in their leaked video. Ending with Wille publicly addressing
that it was him in the video with Simon, the series promises a satisfying final season as Wille looks
turns to smile at Simon behind him before turning to look into the camera, a stern expression on
his face fading into a smirk before the credits roll.
What can we expect from the new season from what we know so far?
Not much has been released for season 3, so we don’t have many spoilers, however, what we do
know is that the story is going to end and it’s going to be nicely rounded off. Head writer and
creator Lisa Ambjorn stated upon the show’s initial release that it was meant to be only two
seasons or so as she had the full story and character arcs written out – it was never open-ended
for future development; instead, the ending was very much insight before the release of the initial
season.
What Netflix has released as teasers are the first look stills and trailer, alongside a video of the
main actors – Edvin Ryding (Prince Wilhelm) and Omar Rudberg (Simon) – after the final season’s
wrap where they briefly discuss some of their favourite scenes to shoot. Unfortunately, they don’t
give away any plot details, just the location of a scene, from Rudberg, and the final scene, being
Ryding’s favourite.
The first-look trailer gives us a lot more to go on as it shows us a snippet of the pair in the Royal
castle where they share a few lines of dialogue. What this does confirm is that finally the Royal
family do talk about Wille and Simon in the presence of the pair and that they do in fact
acknowledge that the crown prince is queer and that’s not something they can sweep under the
rug as they’d previously tried to.
Personally, I find the first look stills to be way more revealing than any other little snippets we’ve
been given since there’s a lot more to dive into. As well as the shots depicting Wille and Simon as
a happy teenage couple, experiencing drama-free teen life as well as the very adult responsibilities
Wille also must undertake, we also are shown shots of the rest of the cast, Wille and Simon’s
classmates and peers, and the storylines introduced for them in the seasons prior. Overall the stills
give us an overwhelmingly positive selection of moments to look forward to this March when the
new season premiers on Netflix and I for one am very excited for this final season.
