"You're a prince. And that's a privilege, not a punishment."
—Queen Kristina to Wilhelm
Young Royals is a Swedish drama series created by Lisa Ambjörn, Lars Beckung, and Camilla Holter.
The series follows Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding), the second son of the reigning Swedish Queen Kristina. After a scandal, he is forced to follow in the family's footsteps by enrolling in an elite private boarding school, where his cousin August (Malte Gårdinger) and childhood friend Felice Ehrencrona (Nikita Uggla) also attend. At school, Wilhelm falls in love with a classmate, Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg), who enrolls as a non-boarding student, alongside his sister, Sara (Frida Argento). As he tries to juggle his royal obligations with a growing desire to follow his own path, matters become even more complicated when an unexpected development in the royal family leaves him with more responsibility than ever before.
The first season was released on Netflix on July 1, 2021. The second season was released on November 1, 2022. A month later, the show was renewed for a third and final season, which was released on March 11, 2024 with the finale scheduled for release on March 17, 2024.
The show contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless:
- Staff and teachers at Hillerska seem to be barely aware about what their students are up to after class. When former students reveal to the press that hazing practices, alcohol and drug fueled parties and degrading treatment of older students towards younger students have been commonplace at Hillerska for years, the new principal responds by collectively punishing the current students. The staff also doesn't seem to take any measures against the photographers that are regularly lurking around on (private) school grounds, even after an intimate video of two students is released online.
- The Queen, Duke and the rest of the Royal Court don't seem to take much of an active role in guiding Wilhelm to his future role, mostly letting him figure things out on his own and only taking charge when things don't meet their approval. After Wilhelm comes out and Simon becomes increasingly targeted by the press and online hate, the Court leaves it to Wilhelm to instruct Simon on how the boyfriend of the crown prince needs to present himself to the public, instead of assisting him more effectively themselves. Wilhelm eventually calls out his parents on their emotional unavailability and their passive attitude towards guiding him.
- Autism in Media: Simons sister, Sara, is autistic, although the show (or maybe the characters) uses the antiquated term Asperger's.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- As the vast majority of young Swedes are casually fluent in English, there are a lot of English phrases thrown around.
- Madison speaks entirely in English.
- Simon and his family often speak to each other in Spanish.
- Several songs have English lyrics relating to the characters and their situations.
- Black Sheep: While his parents have decades of training and experience as monarchs and his brother Erik is a generally well regarded figure, Wilhelm parties and prefers to hide in his room to avoid talking to people. At the start of the series, his actions get him pulled from the public and sent to boarding school. When Erik dies, Wilhelm is forced to become the person he's expected to be as the new crown prince.
- Boarding School: The primary setting of the series.
- Book Ends: The end shots of the first and last scene in season one have Wilhelm staring directly into the camera after a part of his life spirals out of his control. In the beginning, it was being torn away from his home and sent to boarding school, and in the end, losing everyone— August leaked the video, his mom knew and did nothing, Simon couldn't be his secret, and Erik died.
- Cast Full of Rich People: Makes sense, as the primary setting is an elite Swedish boarding school.
- Drugs Are Bad:
- August's abuse of unprescribed ADHD medication causes consequences when he can't acquire any more.
- Sara and Simon's father lost his family due to his addictions.
- Wilhelm parties and takes drugs in episode 4 to distract himself from his grief over Erik's death and ends up having a minor breakdown on a football field.
- Dualvertisement: In the second episode, the students hold a horror movie night at school. It turns out that the horror movie they watch is Netflix's In the Tall Grass. The kids are less than impressed
- First Love: Simon is this to Wilhelm.
- Foil:
- Erik and August. Both act as brother figures to Wilhelm, with Erik being his actual brother and August being entrusted to do so by Erik at school. While Erik was nothing but kind and supportive to his younger brother, which was received with equally as much love from Wilhelm, August betrayed Wilhelm's trust and attempted to ruin his life.
- Wilhelm and August. When their conflict comes to a head in the final two episodes, August leaks a video that outs Wilhelm and Simon on the internet. Wilhelm, on the other hand, pays August's tuition, apologizes, and believes that August is one of the only people he can trust.
- Wilhelm and Erik. Erik is the model crown prince, having been trained to be one all his life. Wilhelm, on the other hand, is in conflict with his desire for more freedom and his family's expectations, which lead to him acting in ways his family views as shameful. After Erik's death and his outing, Wilhelm wishes that Erik were there, because he'd know what to do.
- Forbidden Love: Wilhelm, the crown prince to Sweden falls in love with Simon, a gay, working class, Latino classmate. They don't get their happily ever after in Season 1, but eventually reconcile and get together in Season 2.
- Forced Out of the Closet: After August records and uploads a video of Simon and Wilhelm, it goes viral. Simon has already been out of the closet, but Wilhelm was forced to make the decision to deny for the sake of his family, or stick it out with Simon. Initially, he claims it wasn't him, but in the Season 2 finale, he comes forward about it
- Foreshadowing:
- The woman in the first scene telling Wilhelm and Simon to switch places for the apology foreshadows Wilhelm having to take Erik's place as crown prince after his death.
- August telling Wilhelm that they could kill someone and none of the Hillerska boarders would say a word foreshadows August getting away with posting the video of Wilhelm and Simon and facing virtually no consequences despite nearly everyone important knowing it was him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Pausing to read the invoice Simon got from Hillerska in episode 3 reveals that his last name is Eriksson.
- Granola Girl / New-Age Retro Hippie: Madison seems somewhere in between the two. She's just as rich as most of the other kids at Hillerska and doesn't really espouse any kind of political ideology other than very clearly disliking August, but she wears a lot of boho/hippie-inspired clothing (such as a tye-dye hoodie and something she calls a "Shaman" dress), ropes Felice (and later Wilhelm) into doing some kind of ritual to banish negative energy (complete with a stroke of ash on their foreheads), and is seen with Tarot cards later in the season. She's also seen talking with Simon (aka "socialist boy") in a friendly manner in 1x05.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: August thinks that he has to compete with Wilhelm for Felice, when in reality, Wilhelm is into Simon and had already rejected her.
- Initiation Ceremony: Wilhelm gets a pretty brutal one towards the end of the first episode.
- Interrupted Intimacy: In the beginning of episode 5, Wilhelm and Simon are interrupted by Wilhelm's bodyguard calling into the room to remind him that breakfast ends in five minutes.
- Left the Background Music On: Implied when Wilhelm takes out his earbuds in the first scene and the music muffles with it.
- Leitmotif: "Revolution" by Elias plays both times Wilhelm confesses his feelings for Simon— "I like you" and "I love you."
- Let's Just Be Friends: Wilhelm to Simon. It doesn't last long.
- Lineage Comes from the Father: Gender-Inverted. Kristina, Wilhelm and Erik's mother, is of royal blood, whereas Ludvig married into the monarchy. Because of this he is a Prince, not the King.
- Lonely Funeral: Inverted. Erik's funeral is attended in person by many, and even more watch on television at home.
- Love at First Sight: Wilhelm takes a liking to Simon as soon as he sees him singing in choir on the first day of school.
- Love Confession: Wilhelm to Simon in the final scene of season one. Simon responds by wishing him well on Christmas.
- The Paragon: Crown Prince Erik is quickly shown as an ideal heir to the throne while at the same time being an attentive and loving big brother to Wilhelm. In the aftermath of his death, Wilhelm suddenly has to fill Erik's shoes as the new crown prince, all without the guidance of his brother, who has been with him every step of the way so far.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Wilhelm has a brief shut down after Simon kisses him for the first time.
- The Order: The Society that promises to protect the monarchy is as close as you can get to one with a cast full of high schoolers, anyways.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Wilhelm and Simon break things off 3 times in six episodes. They only get back together twice.
- Rewatch Bonus: While talking with Simon in the end of episode 3, Wilhelm ignores a call to his cellphone. Being that his mom then calls the school to get the message to him before anyone else does, it was likely that was the first attempt to tell him that Erik was dead.
- Secret Relationship: Wilhelm is by no means ready to come out to the public. He still isn't after August leaks the video. At the end of season one, Simon decides that he can't be Wilhelm's secret and breaks it off.
- So Happy Together: Twice.
- The first time, Simon and Wilhelm plan to spend the weekend together in Bjärstad, only for Erik to die, causing Wilhelm to break up with Simon, believing that the relationship is incompatible with his new position as the crown prince.
- During Lucia, Wilhelm and Simon make up from their fight. In the library, August is uploading the video.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Zig zagged. "Samurai Swords" by Highasakite plays while Simon and Wilhelm reconcile from a fight. Despite the song's romantic sound, the lyrics are about feeling as if you're incapable of giving a healthy relationship. The scene is interjected with clips of August in the process of outing Wilhelm and Simon's relationship, and Wilhelm's inability to be publicly out in the aftermath is what causes their breakup.
- There Is Only One Bed: Inverted. Wilhelm has a double room all to himself, complete with a second bed, but Simon still sleeps at the foot of his bed when he stays overnight in episode 4.
- Those Two Guys: Walter and Henry, especially around Wilhelm.
- Upper-Class Equestrian: Wilhelm and Felice, who are both very wealthy characters, have experience in horseback riding.
- Averted with Sara, who is from a working class background and is a dedicated equestrian.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Two of these in episode 1.
- Wilhelm after having to drink other people's spit during a hazing.
- Felice while drunk.
