One of the next original films coming to Disney+ this Friday, September 25th, is director Anna Mastro’s Secret Society of Second-Born Royals.

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Sam — the second in line for the throne of the kingdom of Illyria.  Rebellious and bored of being considered nothing more than the spare to the heir — her picture-perfect queen-to-be sister Eleanor — Sam finds herself in summer boarding school.  Here, along with four other royals, Sam discovers that the second-borns have a genetic trait that bestows superpowers upon them, along with some new goals: Master their powers; develop teamwork; and save the world.

At a recent virtual press junket, actors Peyton Elizabeth Lee (Sam), Niles Fitch (Tuma), Olivia Deeble (Roxana), Isabella Blake-Thomas (January), and Faly Rakotohavana (Matteo) joined director Anna Mastro to discuss the process of portraying a different sort of royalty.

Junket highlights:

Mastro on diversity in casting:

“It’s really important for me, I think, with every movie I make…and this one in particular because I knew so many people were gonna see it, to really mirror the world that I think we live in and to show that version of the world on camera.  And…I grew up in a very diverse city, in a very diverse high school with very diverse kids, and that’s kind of still…how I  function in the world and how I see the world…I think, you know, we should be making stories for our audience, and our audience is diverse.

On playing characters that are both royalty and superheroes:

Lee:  “I think I was super excited when I found out that I was gonna be a Disney princess, like who gets to say that? It’s such this iconic group of people…and so, to sort of be a part of that was really exciting.  And then when I found out that it was not going to be your typical Disney princess but that they’re second-borns and that they don’t fit that sort of princess and prince mold, that just made me much more excited because it’s so important that we sort of break out of what people think you should be.”

Fitch:  “I mean, personally for me, I was very excited because not only am I getting to play a prince, which, not many people get to play, but I get to play a superhero with superpowers, and that is super cool to me.  So I was just really excited because I knew I would be able to learn stunts and get to try on all these cool outfits and, you know, that’s what happened.”

On what people can take away from Secret Society of Second-Born Royals:

Blake-Thomas: “I think it’s about accepting your quote-unquote flaws, because none of these characters are perfect.  I mean, as you get to know them in the movie, we all go through journeys, we all have things we have to overcome, and they’re all things that we have to transform throughout the movie to kind of make us stronger people, but I think it’s about accepting your flaws because we all have them.  It’s what makes us ourselves, and I think as you see these characters grow and change but still have their struggles with them, it’s not about saying, “hey, you have to be perfect.”  You don’t have to fit the mold.  It’s like, make your own mold, make your own box, and kind of embrace who you are, because it’s okay.”

Fitch:  “Personally what I took away from watching the film is not to judge a book by its cover.  I feel like when you meet our characters, you can think one way, but I feel like most of your guys’ perceptions will change by the end.  One thing that I would also say is that people can work together when they come from different backgrounds and that people need to understand that…I feel like that’s really gonna be good for right now, coming out right now during this time that, you know, we don’t need to be separated.  We need to work together and come together.”

Rakotohavana:  “Yeah.  I think one of things a lot of people are gonna take away from this is, as Niles said, you know, a lot of people come from different backgrounds.  None of us are the same, we’re all unique to ourselves…but teamwork is an important theme that I think everybody needs to understand because working together can take you very far.  It doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you think you are—everybody’s important and everybody plays an important role in life.  Everybody has a purpose, you know, you just gotta find it.

Mastro:  “And definitely stronger together.”

Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, will stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning Friday, September 25th.

In case you’ve missed it, here’s the new film’s trailer:

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