Young Royals’ Edvin Ryding explains why it’s ‘important’ Prince Wilhelm doesn’t label his sexuality
Edvin Ryding as Wilhelm in season two of Young Royals. (Robert Eldrim/Netflix)
As Young Royals season two hits Netflix screens, Edvin Ryding has explained why his character Prince Wilhelm is empowered through not labelling their sexuality.
The new season explores the fallout from Simon (Omar Rudberg) and Wilhelm’s relationship being made public against their will, and their eventual break up at the end of season one.
One of the key aspects of the first season was Wilhelm being allowed the chance to explore his sexuality and love who he loves, and for Ryding, to show why labels aren’t important for him.
“There are a lot of different labels right now,” Ryding tells PinkNews, “but the thing about Wilhelm is he doesn’t have a label”.
“Although he’s unsure of what he wants, he knows he enjoys spending time with Simon and it doesn’t matter that he is a boy, that’s not the thing itself.
“For him it’s just fine being unlabelled and I think that’s important to show the audience that you can be unlabelled.”
Ryding has already seen the impact his character has had on fans.
Omar Rudberg as Simon (left) and Edvin Ryding as Willhelm in Young Royals season two. (Johan Paulin)
“There are a lot of people coming up to us in the streets saying: ‘This show gave me the courage to come out to my parents, or my family or friends,'” he says.
Ryding says many have felt seen by the way they “portrayed humanity”, showing it was OK to “look different, have acne and different kinds of body sizes”.
Not having queer identity be the central point of Young Royals was also something important for creator Lisa Ambjörn and director Rojda Sekersöz.
“Wilhelm’s problem is that he is the crown prince, not that he’s in love with Simon,” Ambjörn explains, “you can see an explosion of [LGBTQ+] shows now as well. And that makes me so happy, because it means that there is a wide variety of shows for everyone”.
“Everyone can find a show where they feel someone is going through the same things as them. And that makes us freer in our interpretation because we can dare to be more specific about what we are actually telling. We don’t have to represent everyone.”
Sekersöz adds: “What’s important for us is that in our story their sexuality isn’t an issue so we want to keep their sexuality a norm. This is the world they live in and that’s who they choose.
“This story is about the monarchy and what it does when you can’t choose who, or when or how you are going to be with someone – boy or girl.”
Young Royals season one and two are now available to watch on Netflix.
