I Am Seated and Ready for “The Next Prince”

If you’ll pardon me reusing a fairly common phrase, it’s been 84 years, but we are finally going to get The Next Prince. It was “coming soon” for so long, it felt like it would never get here. But the official trailer dropped yesterday, and I am seated and ready.

This has been one of my most anticipated BLs since I learned about it last year (though it was first announced something like two years ago), and it’s actually premiering next month. Like, for real. There’s a date and everything. At long last, our watch has ended.

The Next Prince is set in the fictional kingdom of Emmaly, which is divided into five regions and leaders. Each region must send one heir to compete in a royal competition; the father of whoever wins becomes the next king. Khanin (NuNew Chawarin) has been living a normal life until Charan (Zee Pruk) shows up and tells him that he is actually royalty. He is whisked away to take his rightful place and join the competition.

Seriously, this show is going to have everything: someone who didn’t know they were royalty suddenly finding out that they’re royalty, falling in love with the bodyguard, badass ladies challenging the status quo. I’ve been waiting for this series for so long, I’m worried that it won’t live up to the hype I’ve built up in my own head.

But the trailer looks so good, y’all. The production values on this series are insane. I don’t know that I’ve seen a BL with this kind of quality before. It legitimately could be a film or “prestige” television, like something you would find on HBO (or the equivalent in other countries, I am American and so are my comparisons). It’s so heartening when a BL series is given this kind of investment.

Check out the detail on the costumes. Marvel at the expansiveness of the sets. This is a production and I am living for it.

And in that moment, we were all Chakri (Khanin’s attendant in the last scene of the trailer).

This is also going to be my introduction to Zee and NuNew (unless I can binge watch Cutie Pie before May 3). I am already hooked on them just based on the trailer(s) for The Next Prince, but I know that a lot of people love them and their chemistry. So I’m really excited to see how they handle these roles. I am a sucker for a good bodyguard romance, and while this seems to a modern fantasy, it still looks to have some elements of a good period romance. (It’s the royalty thing. The expectations, the yearning.)

But I also am excited for the plot. This trailer has more politics than the pilot trailer, which was mostly focused on the relationship between Khanin and Charan. While I still hope that there’s a decent amount of romance, I do love a mystery, and it looks like there is some sort of conspiracy that needs to be figured out. I also hope that Ava’s storyline gets decently fleshed out. I will never argue with seeing a female character fight the patriarchy.

In short, this looks amazing, and you had all better prepare yourselves for my caps lock-infused reviews.

The Next Prince premieres Saturday, May 3, and will be 14 episodes.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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