Ensemble Dark Horse: Ellen Claremont, Alex's mom, is beloved by the fandom for her intelligence and drive, and her support of her son. The infamous "Powerpoint" scene is often touted as one of the funniest moments in the entire book. Many have gone so far to say that they wish she really were President, similar to people's feeling towards President Bartlet.
Harsher in Hindsight: Henry brings up the idea of abdicating and leaving the Royal Family if they won't accept his sexuality and relationship with Alex. In the end, he doesn't have to. The book was partially inspired by Meghan Markle marrying Prince Harry. A year after it came out, the couple decided to exit the Royal Family, citing the extreme racist harassment she received from the media and the lack of support from some of his relatives.
The film:
And You Thought It Would Fail: Granted, some people were going to watch it just based on how popular the book was, but many were surprised when the movie turned out to be not a phoned-in adaptation of a romance, but actually a charming, heartfelt, and shockingly well-acted love story. This is doubly so as the two leads' previous forays into romance films received very mixed and even negative reviews.
Kennie J.D.: I was going into that movie expecting it to be garbage. It was gonna be the guy from The Kissing Booth and the guy from Purple Hearts in a love story. Right? Terrible. But no, actually it was very very cute.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Unsurprisingly, the film's version of Ellen Claremont is almost as beloved as her book counterpart, with Uma Thurman — who even before the release was lauded as the perfect choice for the role — widely agreed upon as having delivered a flawless performance.
Fanon: There are a number of fans who believe that King James, Henry's grandfather in the film, is also a closeted gay man due to his generally more sympathetic portrayal compared to his book counterpart Queen Mary, with most of his motivation for keeping Henry in the closet being because he's genuinely concerned of the potential backlash his grandson might face for being an openly homosexual royal. Being played by the openly gay Stephen Fry certainly helps perpetuate this belief.
Friendly Fandoms: With Heartstopper. Both are sweet gay Rom Coms which appeal to the exact same audience. Aside from both being considered a considerable step in LGBT representation in media by seeing two hits being Queer Romances. The two were also released very shortly one after the other, with this movie and season 2 of Heartstopper coming out in the same month.
He Really Can Act: Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine had been previously known for roles in romance movies with mediocre reception (for the former, The Kissing Booth, and for the latter, Purple Hearts and Cinderella), which did leave some people fearing that they wouldn't be able to do justice to the characters on screen. Many fans were surprised to see them both have amazing chemistry with each other and sell their romance and characters much better than in previous works.
