‘Young Royals’ Co-Creator on Wilhelm’s Historic Confession in That Season 2 Finale
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SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from Season 2 of “Young Royals,” now streaming on Netflix.
Well, that is certainly one way to get the attention of the entire country of Sweden.
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In the Season 2 finale of Netflix’s global sensation “Young Royals,” Sweden’s teenaged Crown Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) used a nationally broadcasted speech at his school Hillerska’s 120th anniversary jubilee to confess to his classmates, his family and his country that he’d lied about not being in the illegally distributed sex tape with Simon (Omar Rudberg). The very public moment of candor and bravery came after a season of regret over being forced to deny being in the video by his mother, the Queen Kristina of Sweden (Pernilla August) — a decision that drove a wedge between Wilhelm and Simon.
For this series-defining moment, “Young Royals” co-creator and head writer Lisa Ambjörn told Variety it was important Wilhelm didn’t use his address as a coming-out speech or to publicly declare his love for Simon, even though they did officially reunite just moments before he went on stage.
“For Wilhelm, the realization throughout the season has been that [he and Simon’s relationship] was never the problem” she says. “The problem was that he was forced to lie. That lie has now caused this havoc among their friends, not to mention what that has done to him internally. He has to break it. And when he breaks it, he’s not sure he can put it back together. But it had to fall apart.”
As the assembled students start to livestream his speech from their unexpected front-row seats to history, Wilhelm turns to Simon for a silent but sweet smile of momentary reassurance that will surely have fans swooning.
“We shot loads of takes of that scene,” Ambjörn says. “He turns around, he looks at Simon and they share this little smile and you kind of feel like they have each other, and it’s going to be great. And then Wilhelm turns back, takes in the room, and he’s kind of like, ‘Oh shit.’”
Whether that’s how fans will see the final scene of the season is something Ambjörn is interested to see — because there is room for interpretation. The last shot finds Wilhelm staring straight at the screen, as if he’s looking through the viewer to those actually in front of him, who include his shocked mother, his duplicitous cousin August (Malte Gårdinger) and the rest of the world.
Just before it cuts to black, the ever-so-slight beginnings of a smile — nervous or otherwise — form in the corner of his mouth, signaling either confidence, concern or a bit of both for what he has just unleashed.
“I think a lot of people will be able to connect that to themselves when they have been brave enough to do something, but then realize it’s just the first step,” she says. “It doesn’t solve everything. Just because you stand up to the bully, or share your heart’s desire with someone, it doesn’t automatically change the rest of the world. But it maybe changes something in you that allows you to move forward.”
Ambjörn got the idea for Wilhelm’s big speech after watching Ryding jokingly impersonate the mannerisms and speech of Swedish political figures while they did press for Season 1. But eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that Ryding has been quietly laying the groundwork for Wilhelm’s gradual sense of comfort in his royal role even before the speech.
In Season 1, Wilhelm would pat his chest and bite his fingernails as outward signs of his anxiety even before he was thrust into the role of Crown Prince by the death of his brother. But now things have changed: in Season 2, Ambjörn notes he has stopped biting his fingers and is subtly scratching them and occasionally biting the inside of his lip.
While those habits hardly signal complete confidence in himself, Wilhelm’s big confession is, undeniably, his first major step toward becoming king on his terms. But what will the consequences of his actions mean for his relationship with Simon? Fans will have to wait for Season 3, which has not yet been ordered.
“That is up to the Netflix gods to decide,” Ambjörn says with a grin.
However, viewers can take solace in knowing the second season finale left the young lovers in a much better place than Season 1 did.
Throughout this season, Simon has kept Wilhelm at a distance — and even cozied up to a new man, Marcus (Tommy Wättring) — as he nursed his hurt over Wilhelm’s lie last season. But by the finale, he comes to accept his feelings and Wilhelm’s impossible circumstances.
Ambjörn says she knows audiences love Simon for his moral fortitude, but she thought it would be more interesting to see him strip some of that away as he found his way back to Wilhelm. “This was a big, big discussion from the get-go,” she says. “I was always very confident that Simon had to kind of back down. It is too easy to make Simon into this righteous, always right and moral person. But people forget that to help him and his sister Sara get into the school party in Season 1, he starts off by getting his dad to buy alcohol for the school.”
When he finds out Sara (Frida Argento) has betrayed him and fallen in love with August, who released the tape of him and Wilhelm, Simon is pushed to a place where he’s ready not to always take the high road.
“When he gets hurt by Sara — the person that is supposed to know him the best, and who he thinks has the same view on life as him, but it turns out doesn’t — he’s left to wonder who he can trust,” Ambjörn says.
The answer to that question is Wilhelm. Just seconds before Wilhelm takes the stage, he and Simon slip away to a private corridor where Simon tells Wilhelm “I love you.” It’s a tender moment in the midst of so much tension, and one that brings the couple full circle from the Season 1 finale when Simon did not reciprocate Wilhelm’s “I love you” because he felt betrayed by his lie about the video.
With the two boys finally being on the same page, the romantic reunion contributes to Wilhelm’s surge of confidence in the speech.
But can young love survive the inevitable scrutiny that will follow his declaration to the country he will one day rule? Ambjörn is understandably tight-lipped, saying only that she has no intention to keep them apart just for the sake of drama.
“I will never invent just random things that will interrupt them,” Ambjörn assures fans.
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