Major spoilers ahead for Young Royals season 3.
Lisa Ambjörn, the creator and head writer of the Swedish YA series Young Royals, thinks she might need to go into hiding.
Ambjörn speaks in jest, of course, but in treading her own anticipation of releasing her characters into the world for the last time, she’s relaxed into a perpetual state of delight at finally being able to talk about storylines she’s been threading for the past few years. The first five episodes of the show’s third and final season, which dropped on Netflix on March 11, seemed to herald the end of Wilhelm and Simon’s relationship, and now with the final episode out on March 18, we’re not okay.
Young Royals stars Edvin Ryding as Wilhelm, the Crown Prince of Sweden’s royal family, and Omar Rudberg as Simon; two students at Hillerska boarding school who fall in love and begin to question their place in the world. In the aftermath of the season 2 finale, Hillerska and its students return once again, this time facing an unprecedented threat of closure following reports of cruel initiations from the past — storylines orchestrated by Ambjörn and her writers room.
This season is personal for Ambjörn. It always is for a writer, watching as their words are spoken into existence on-screen, but there’s a layer of something else. Something more familial. For a season that dances with father-child relationships in their beautiful and sometimes prickly ways, Ambjörn’s own father also has a presence, conveyed through her cameo appearance in episode 5. The writer plays the guitar as the royals sing Wilhelm a “ridiculous birthday song,” taken from Kalle Stropp och Grodan Boll räddar Hönana, a cartoon she grew up watching. Her father still sings her the song on every birthday, and now those memories are immortalized forever on-screen, because it’s her dad’s guitar she’s playing.
Ahead of the Young Royals premiere, Ambjörn joined Teen Vogue over Zoom to unpack the character journeys of season 3, her storytelling process, and the intense moments that close out episode 5. (Read our farewell to Young Royals with Edvin Ryding and Omar Rudberg here.)
Teen Vogue: Congratulations on the third and final season of Young Royals. How does it feel to be at the end?
Lisa Ambjörn: We've had a long time to process it. I still feel so privileged as a writer and creator to get to decide when the story ends, because that's not the case a lot of the time. The process of letting go really started going into the third season after having finished the second one, when I went back into writing. I was so nervous, because it was so much pressure, and I had very high expectations. I wanted to do what I set out to do from the beginning… So it feels amazing, but there's a melancholy to it. There is a sadness, of course. I don't think I'll realize for another few years that I don't have these characters living and breathing in me in that same way, and that is very hard, like very strange. How do you let go of your fictional characters? They've been inside you, it's like you have given birth, you know?
TV: Yes, I absolutely can relate to that. We left them in season 2 with Wilhelm’s look to camera. And then we come back to them in season 3, at a meeting with all parties coming to an agreement about how to move forward. Tell me about the fallout of that moment.
LA: Firstly, I just wanted to rip the band-aid off and really get all the pain out there in the first few minutes of the show. I thought it would be such a strong opening, coming straight in with Wilhelm in this extreme and having this very intense moment with each other, and then having to go back to school. I know they are in an extreme situation, but that's how I felt going to high school, that if you had an argument with someone or someone had been mean to you, you were forced to see them still every single day.
TV: That’s so true to the high school experience.
LA: Like taking the universal feeling and putting it in something very specific that we might not relate to, but we can emotionally understand that. It’s one of my favorite bits in the first episode, when Wilhelm and Simon meet, and he gets to take him to his room. And that makeout session, it was the first intimacy scene we did of the season. It was so fun and beautiful to get back into these characters and to just feel nervous and excited about what's going to come but also a bit stressed… And those are also the first scenes we shot in the whole season, and both the beginning and the end of the show were shot very close to the beginning and end, which was very, very nice.
TV: We've seen them have these kinds of moments before but it's been at school, so why was it important to have this take place in the physical representation of the Crown?
LA: For me it was more based on character that Wilhelm gets to bring who he is into his world, like a world that he dominates, that he exists in, that Simon has not had any access to. And also to show that where they are emotionally is different to what is happening plot-wise. So even if they are in this intense meeting, they are still teenagers, all they want to do is just go and make out and you're like, yeah, but you're having this crazy ass situation.
I'm inspired by Marie Antoinette by [Sofia] Coppola, and you have Red, White & Royal Blue, they also have those scenes in the palace, but they are adults... It's something so beautiful, to get the same feeling that you have in Simon's room, and to have that in the palace, where it's like, all the history, everything that it stands for, even down to a philosophical level of the roles that we are born to play in life. We are born into an ethnicity, we are born into a social status. They are starting to break that and trying to figure out is there an option? Or is there not? Are they destined? And I think unfortunately, in a lot of cases, that people end up exactly where we could have imagined that they would end up because of all of these factors or social injustices, and that is sad, so it's nice to be able to tweak it a little bit.
TV: What I’ve had to contend with as a viewer, is reminding myself that these are young people with the world at their fingertips. And all I want Wilhelm and Simon to do throughout these episodes is to make some noise, face the cameras and just yell at people, take the power of the Crown and burn the world down. But then I have to take a step back and say, they're still teenagers, and we cannot place the burden of fixing the future on our young people.
LA: Yes! Yes!
TV: So what has that process been like for you, as the architect of the world and the script writer, having to stick to your storytelling impulses, and not be pulled over by the ideal?
LA: This is such an important question. There is such an importance of having stories where we get to see what things could be like. We get to see someone standing up to their bully and saying the right thing at the right time, standing up for their friends or themselves or being brave. And then there's also a place for stories that are showing maybe a bit more realism — but I don't think realism necessarily means that it’s supposed to be real.
There's so much shame that people are trying to run away from when they are teens. I mean, shame in all its shapes and colors — being ashamed of your parents, being ashamed of yourself, feeling that the whole world is looking at you and judging you constantly; sitting in your room at night thinking, “Oh my god, I said that to that person,” and, “That was so embarrassing.” I wrote in my diary, when I was 14 or 15, “You can never forget, you are not allowed to ever forget this. For my sake, you have to remember what it's like to be a teenager.”
Teenagers today grow up earlier, they have so much to mirror themselves on with social media, that I think it's very important to show stories where people don't do the right thing and don't behave in the right way and make terrible decisions, and do really embarrassing stuff and cringy stuff and do wrong, because I think for me that would have been more helpful as a teen. Even if it's so horrible to watch it, I think it would have been more important.
And like you say, we can put a lot of trust in the future in the sense that the younger generation, they have a lot of things that they are doing so amazingly that previous generations haven't done. But we cannot say things like, “Greta Thunberg should save the climate.” She was a child, how did we not just support her? She should not have had to sit outside and demonstrate. And like you say, with Simon and Wilhelm from a writing point, we needed to take them on this journey for Wilhelm to really understand what has been done to him. He needed to put Simon through that to actually get the mirror [image and realize], actually, “This is what has happened to me and this is something that I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life.”
By the way, Omar thought it was so embarrassing, the [“Revolution”] song that Simon sings in episode 2 and posts online. He was like, “This is so cringe.” And I was like, “But Omar, he is 16. He writes from his heart. He gets frustrated. He feels attacked. He feels unsafe. He feels like everyone has an opinion about him, so he just does what he can and he sings. And it's not perfect.”
TV: It’s his form of expression.
LA: Yes, and Simon is a very lovable character. But it’s not Omar, he’s not a pop singer, he hasn’t had that kind of training. It’s more important than ever to let teenagers actually be teens. The problem is that they are so watched online and feel so seen and are under the constant threat of being exposed, even if it's to their classmates. There is less room for making mistakes and I think this season is also about shame and the other characters facing what you have done to someone and living with that. It’s been very beautiful to explore that with these characters and in their different ways in trying to deal with that.
TV: This season Simon seems to take one step forward in doing something for himself, and then he’s knocked back three steps by the Crown and the pressure of association with the Crown Prince — he’s called a “typical Latino lover,” is the subject of online harassment, gets religious pamphlets in the mail. What has it been like living in Simon’s mindset for the season?
LA: In season 1, when the video came out, and Simon was targeted as the Crown Prince’s lover, he got a lot of heat in a very short span of time. Then as soon as Wilhelm went out and said, “It wasn't me in the video,” all the interest kind of disappeared straight away for Simon… He went back to being a nobody again, everyone was like, “It’s just two boys making out,” and no one cared. And then the whole of season two, where he had to question, “do I actually want this? I actually could have a normal life. Do I actually want Wilhelm?” And the last thing he says to Wilhelm, before he makes the speech is like, “I'll be your secret.” Having that turned around straight away, like “No, this is not a secret anymore. Now the whole world knows,” I knew we had to address it and really play it out.
We did try a lot of different things in the harshness of the [social media] comments. Writing them is probably the worst thing I've done to my character who I love. It was horrendous. But it was also very easy, unfortunately, because I just looked online at what people write, and I just stole everything… I read a lot about teens being cyber bullied, like the feeling you have that everyone is constantly watching you. You're not only bullied in school, you're bullied everywhere. I wanted to bring that up as well to kind of show what it actually means when everyone can contact you at any given time of any given day.
It’s really hard to keep away from it. Simon’s first strategy is, “Maybe if I just keep an eye on it, if I reply to some comments,” that he can control it, but you can't control the narrative online. And I've actually stolen some of the stuff, the speculation about them, from Young Royals fans speculating about Edvin and Omar's private lives. Yeah, so it's very dark.
TV: Wow. That really puts a full stop on it. Doing that really makes a point, you know? Now we also have to talk about Sara, played by Frida Argento. What you’ve done with her this season, developing her relationship with her father Micke, has been wonderful, and despite Micke letting her down, she still passes her driver’s test.
LA: I cry so much with that, and I also cry when she sings in the car with her dad. Every time that scene gets me. Just the lyrics of the song ["Not Forever" by Popsicle], "'Cause I can change I'm not the same / Not forever," and you're like, some things are the same even if you wish you could change everything in an instant. The point you're talking about, it's interesting because direction wise, [we got notes suggesting] to take away moments before so we're more surprised about [Micke's drinking]... But it's not the moment of surprise that's important, like you said, it's what Sara does with it, and how she has grown as a character — and that is the difference.
Micke for me has always been a very important character for Simon and Sara. The reason from the beginning that I wrote Simon and Sara as siblings — because in the original pitch that I got, they didn't exist — was to be able to tell more about Simon through Sara. With Wilhelm, for example, we don't follow the royal members. We could have followed Erik in previous seasons or we could have been alone with the Queen to get a deeper understanding. But for me, in the Erickson family, it felt really important to understand that their storylines make the whole for that family.
But coming to Sara. Frida adds so much to the role and she's so amazing this season. I was in awe watching her takes. But bringing Micke back also felt so important to find the conclusion. I don't think anyone's expecting it. I think some of the superfans have figured it out because there's a shot outside of Micke's house, but I think most of the viewers won't know until he suddenly turns up.
Building up to the driver's test, I felt it was very important, for Simon and Sara this season, to find some strength in themselves, and for Sara, it was to be able to deal with the reality of the sickness that her father has. She's scared that she’s going to be the same because she has his diagnosis. It's different for her, because Simon can be more like, “I'm not going to turn out like him,” whereas she feels like, “Is this my future?” To have her face that and give her back some [control], that she can do stuff, she’s going to be a great adult, and is going to function in this world. It all helps her in starting to feel that she's actually going to manage and be okay. Also I had a lot of talks with Frida about her experiences from being a teenager to growing up and looking back at it in a different way. It's one of the storylines that I'm most proud of this season.
TV: Wilhelm is also hit this season with the revelation that his late brother Erik was part of the terrible Hillerska initiations in the past. Where did that all come from?
LA: Well, two places. When we meet Erik in season 1, he is running his mother's errands. He's trying to get Wilhelm to accept the fact that he's going to [Hillerska]. He tells him how he should behave, what he should and should not do. The first time we hear him speak any longer than a sentence is when he laughs at a misogynistic joke that August [played by Malte Gårdinger] makes about Felice. I always had this feeling that Wilhelm loves his brother, and adores him. He's his big idol. But he is very much a part of the [royal] structure and he would have gone and been a Crown Prince without a question. After the first season, Erik received so much love from the fandom which was beautiful. They had theories, because when [Erik and Wilhelm speak on the phone], they don't mention the sex of the person he's in love with. And people really [felt] he would have been supportive of Wilhelm, he would have been the best big brother.
Then my friend told me this story. Her father passed away when she was a kid, which was really traumatic. She's queer, and she had idolized her father in her imagination, like of course, because that's what happens when someone dies. And when she got older, she was told that he was quite homophobic, and that he might have not been as easily accepting of her as her mother was. It didn't destroy her image of her father, but it made her, in a maybe a good way, see that there's always a whole person; the times and the norms and everything in there that makes the person.
I agree with the fans that Erik would have been supportive of Wilhelm being queer, but I'm not sure he would have been supportive of him dating a working class boy, and I'm not sure he would have been supportive of that being something Wilhelm should share with the rest of the world.
You know, you can ask yourself, would Erik have been on his mother's side or not? And I think he would have, and that made it really important for me to then — like, this is the thing, you might have good intentions. You might not see yourself as a homophobe or a racist or a sexist. You might not subscribe to any of those ideologies. But you can still, if you're a part of [traditions and norms] of a school, or initiations, you can still commit homophobic or racist or sexist acts. I never think that Erik is like, "I'm a homophobe, so now I'm going to do this homophobic thing." I read loads about different schools having these rites, and I found one in the '90s, where the girls in the third year wrote a porno novel that they then read for the first grade boys, with the third grade boys. I was like, okay, so what if that was a thing that they did at [Hillerska] and how would that have now evolved throughout the years? What could that be today? "Yeah, let's show them a porno". [Ambjörn mockingly imitates their laughter].
So how has that shaped August then, because he also loved Erik and he thought Erik was amazing, and he wanted nothing more than to be with him, just like Wilhelm, he wanted to be the third brother. To have been put through that with someone you look up to, and having gotten an eating disorder from that, to be undressed. For him, maybe it wasn't the sexual part that caught on the most. It was important for me to be like, yeah, he did a horrible act towards Wilhelm and Simon first when he filmed, but especially when he posted it. But in a world where these things [like the initiation] have happened in this way, where you have laughed at two men having sex on video, how does that then translate into your own actions? And how does this [cause] the ripple effect of homophobia?...
It doesn't excuse anyone's actions. It doesn't mean that August didn't do what he did. It doesn't change his dynamics with Wilhelm, but it was important for Wilhelm to realize that his brother wasn't perfect... His brother was very strong-willed. In [Wilhelm's] mind, he was the most manly man there is. But he never questioned the norms, he didn't make a fuss. Wilhelm is actually the strong one who is making a fuss and speaking up and daring to question [either] the monarchy or himself. That is a very brave thing to do. But that is considered weak in our society, which is sad, because it's probably the most powerful thing you can do.
TV: Erik never really had a need to challenge all that because he fit the norm so perfectly, whereas Willhelm doesn’t.
LA: Yes, yeah.
TV: And Felice as well, played by Nikita Uggla. The narrative this season really hammers home the otherness she’s made to feel as a woman of color. What was the storylining process like and getting to tell that story?
LA: It was a constant conversation with Nikita throughout the production, and it was really beautiful. She has also simultaneously been on that journey throughout the show, which has been really cool, because she was brought up in a white family and in a like, white part of the city. And I also had Palmira Koukkari Mbenga. She was my script editor this season, and she is a queer Black woman. And we really dug into like — we don't have much screen time, but this is such an important part to firstly mirror the theme of this season; what happens when you wake up all of these powers within the school, when you start opening your eyes, what is actually happening around you, we wanted to have Felice on that journey as well.
For me, it was interesting also to have the friend group with Madison, Stella, and Fredrika. They have been in a lot of ways very loved by the audience, and they're actual “cool girls.” But they are also super posh and they also have these traditions and norms. What I find really interesting is that people can talk a lot about having the right opinions, you know, these kids are also on TikTok. They understand that you shouldn't touch a Black person's hair, you know, they have these ideas. But when their friend is actually saying, "Sometimes I experience something like this with you guys," they can't really process that, because the hardest part is when your friend, or someone you love and feel close to brings these things up and tries to talk about the things, that they might not be able to connect with you, or trying to make you see their point of view.
We've also talked about how she starts seeing Simon and Sara's point of view a little bit like, it is weird to stick out, and not being able to just be fully transparent and honest with who is supposed to be your best friend, is really heartbreaking. And it doesn't mean that your best friend can't be a person who has other experiences, but it's just how you approach that. And I don't think, no matter how woke these girls are about other things, they are still posh, white-passing people and when their school is on the line, they don't want you to question that. They're like, "We understand you have an issue with being Black, but like, sit down now and just follow the norm, and then we can talk about that later," like you're not allowed to have more than one thought going at the same time.
I really love the scene with Felice and her dad, it was really great... She's trying to bring up the conversation and he can talk about it, but he also wants to protect her with the old mentality of, "you just have to be 10 times better than everyone else," and then you're going to be fine. And he's not saying that to be mean, he's trying to protect her, just like the Queen is trying to protect Wilhelm, but it's not what they need in that moment.
TV: And both of them in their respective situations shouldn't have to perform ten times better to be seen as just as good as the others.
LA: Exactly.
TV: Episode 5 ends with Wilhelm’s explosive blow-up at his mother and Simon suggests that they should break up. First of all, how dare you? Second of all, with the story you've been building for three seasons, why was that moment inevitable?
LA: It does come from just exploring the characters through the writing and taking them on all of these twists and turns. This is where Wilhelm confronts his mother and father and lets it all out, and Simon is there to witness it. When you meet someone, and you fall in love with someone, you meet their family, and maybe the first few times, maybe if you're lucky, everyone is civilized. Then you will witness something very private and very personal that is decades, if not centuries, of generational trauma, playing out in front of your eyes. Especially as a young person, that can be terrifying, because you realize you're just a little blip in this web of family history.
Simon, in episode 4, decides after everything that’s happened and everything he’s been pushed through — “Okay, I'm gonna go along with this now and see if it works.” He's rethinking everything — “It was important for me that Wilhelm confessed his love, but he also did it publicly without letting me have a chance to prepare myself. I will do the final push, I will see if this works. If I just disappear, if I'm just invisible, if I just support him and I don't cause a scene, I don't cause any problems, will that make him happy? Will that make our moments together feel the same as they did before?” And in that moment, when he sees Wilhelm with his family, he realizes this is a problem that's not gonna end.
It's almost like a codependency. Simon’s like, “When I help you, I help you do something that doesn't make you happy, and that is so heartbreaking. What can we even be? Can we even be together? Maybe this isn't working because this is more important for you, you need to deal with this. You're the victim, but you're also making me a victim in that process.” When I came to that conclusion, by the end of episode five, like I joked with you, I thought I am gonna have to go into hiding after this, because it is gut wrenching. And so sad. But it's one of the most important points of all three seasons, and this third season, it's just full of these moments where I feel like this is what I've been waiting for.
TV: Finally, what words would you use to describe the end of Young Royals?
LA: Pure catharsis.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
