SPOILERS are ahead for Rosaline, now streaming with a Hulu subscription.
Over the years there have been many romantic comedies based off the works of William Shakespeare that we know and love, between 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s The Man or yes, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio. And yet, Hollywood will always come back for more and does with Hulu release, Rosaline, a spinoff of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Romeo’s ex. But Kyle Allen’s own spinoff idea for the famed play is inspired.
When CinemaBlend spoke to the Rosaline actor who plays Romeo in this new version of the story, Kyle Allen shared that while on set he formulated an alternative idea for the iconic romance. In his words:
I think it was discussed at length on set that I would love for there to be a spinoff romance between Romeo and Dario. I just feel like everyone can fall in love with Dario and Romeo falls in love with everyone, so I think they’d have a great bromance.
It’s been over 400 years since Romeo and Juliet has been around, and yet, it remains a straight love story. In Rosaline, Kyle Allen plays a Romeo who falls fast in love with everyone and he’d have liked to see him have a queer romance with Sean Teale’s Dario. Teale was into the idea too, saying this:
I would love that. We got so excited when we saw each other on set. We were like, we actually have a moment to like actually do something and we'd spend the whole summer together. We did a lot of historical tours together. We spent a lot of time just riffing, cause being around Kyle is a day very well spent. But, me and Kyle had some time and we really did develop a bromance, so I was like, what a shame that we let this Rosaline get in the way of our good time. So I would happily do a spinoff as long as [Kaitlyn Dever] could do some more too. We have one moment at the end of the movie where he tries to speak to me, and it's the most that we got and it's the only thing we get and it's quite special to both of us. So I'd love to do that with Kyle. Anything with Kyle would be great.
It sounds like Kyle Allen and Sean Teale really hit it off on set and had some palpable chemistry in real life, spawning this original idea for a Romeo and Juliet spinoff. And hey, if two men in the olden days fell in love it might be quite similar to the story of Romeo and Juliet, because it would not have been readily accepted by their two families and may have even ended in tragedy.
The classic story of starcrossed lovers itself feels primed to get a queer retelling, through we’d certainly prefer it to be an LGBTQ+ romantic comedy so it gets a happy ending. In the old days, when these plays were performed by all male casts, so Romeo and Juliet was often two men falling in love under those fancy costumes.
By the end of Rosaline, the spin on the classic play sees Romeo and Juliet faking their deaths and riding off to the sunset only to realize they might not have much in common, while Rosaline gets a happy ending in finding Dario. If only Rosaline made Romeo a bisexual character, because it’d totally make sense, but either way Kyle Allen has a fab idea to twist around the Shakespearean tale.
Kyle Allen has been no stranger to romances as of late, also starring with Joey King in The In-Between earlier this year along with The Map of Tiny Perfect Things and in another Romeo and Juliet adaptation, Spielberg’s West Side Story. You can check out CinemaBlend’s review of Rosaline and stream it on Hulu.
