Were you a Hamilton-obsessed middle schooler? Did Lin Manuel Miranda have a concerning hold over you and your 2016-2017 friend group? Alternatively, have you seen Bridgerton?
Since you definitely answered yes to one of those questions, you’ll be excited to hear my inaugural prediction: that Americans are primed for a historical drama full-length feature film on none other than King George the Third.
You may know this character from his work as the comedic relief in Hamilton, the tragic romantic star of Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte series, or his time-honored role as the villainous tyrant of American history textbooks.
These portrayals of King George the Third are situated amid a historical drama craze. Besides Bridgerton and Hamilton, the past few years have been extremely kind to shows like The Crown and Downtown Abbey showering them with Emmy nominations and a full-length film, respectively. A musical about the wives of King Henry the Eighth, was a smash hit on Broadway, and Firebrand, a movie about that same king is coming out this summer. This is all to say nothing of the films The Favorite, Mary Queen of Scots, and Napoleon.
We are also at a point where hot villains/anti-heroes have made a comeback. Maleficent, Cruella, Joker, Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad, Loki, the Scarlet Witfch in Wandavision, and young President Snow have all had their chances to shine in Twitter feeds and TikTok thirst traps. Who doesn’t love a tortured, traumatized main character with abs and a great haircut?
George as a character leaves a lot for a writing team to explore. The complexity of his life could perhaps be best shown in a story I first learned from a Tiktok and later fact-checked on the History website. Early in his 60-year reign, George was nearly stabbed by an angry woman as he walked through the London city streets. As the woman was forcibly taken away by his guards, George pleaded with the men not to hurt her. Allegedly, he cried out “The poor creature is mad!” Years later, this same phrase would be uttered in reference to him, the “mad king.” In a time of growingincreasing mental health awareness and understanding in Hollywood, George’s life serves as a cautionary tale and a horror story of medical mistreatment. In a time of increasing mistrust of political leaders and aristocrats, George’s history has been chronicled in both the archives of benevolent kings and raging tyrants.
In a time when celebrities seem dystopian and detached from modern life, George is a public figure known for taking immense pleasure in farming, even called “Farmer George.” In a time marked by the resurgence of anti-colonial struggle and the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, George is an antagonistic symbol of colonial exploitation and the riches it bestowed upon his country.
Personally, I think there are other ways of telling these types of stories. When the idea that we are primed for a movie on Jonathan Groff’s second-best character struck me, I was immediately disappointed. Hollywood has a long and tired history of using the same stories over and over again to examine modern issues, whether that be retellings of Cinderella or more biopics examining the lives of the white and the wealthy. This practice takes attention and resources away from the millions of stories yet to be told, romanticizing the upper-class members of our capitalist society.
I made my prediction in the midst of eating a turkey sandwich. Midbite, sitting cross-legged at the dining table, I scowled. I was irked, and immediately convinced of three things. One, I was convinced that such a movie would be a box-office hit. Two, I knew that such a move would inevitably contribute to the patterns of Hollywood retellings and aristocratic romanticization that I am morally opposed to. Three, I knew in my heart that I would definitely watch such a movie, raised as I was on a fascination with British royalty, from magazine clippings of Princess Diana and the live stream of Princess Kate’s wedding to picture books of King Henry the Eighth’s execution of Anne Boleyn and Queen Elizabeth’s speech to her navy.
Though unhappy with the foreseen consequences of my own prediction, I am nevertheless ludicrously convinced that I am right. I’ll bet you five dollars we’ll see such a movie within the next decade.