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‘Descendants: Wicked Wonderland’s Kylie Cantrall & Alexandro Byrd Talk Red and Luis’ Romance
There’s a fairytale romance blooming in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland! Sparks fly between Red (Kylie Cantrall) and Luis (Alexandro Byrd) in the latest Descendants flick as the VKs and HKs of Auradon Prep travel to Wonderland to save the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora) and Cinderella (Brandy).
The surprising connection catches both Red and Luis off guard. As Red faces tension with Chloe (Malia Baker), Luis notices and wants to help. As they take a walk in Wonderland to “get some air,” Red and Luis bond. Their chemistry is effortless and adorably sweet, culminating in a swoonworthy duet, “For Once in My Life.” Kylie Cantrall and Alexandro Byrd spoke to Swooon about the blossoming love story between their characters and where they might go from here.
“There’s some chemistry in ‘For Once in My Life,’ of course,” Byrd said. “One of my favorite, if not my favorite, songs in the whole movie. It’s such a beautiful song. It’s a beautiful dance number, but we’ll see. I think it’s still like the early stages of Red and Luis, so we’ll see what happens. At the end of the movie, he gets the approval from the Queen of Hearts. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
Cantrall loved how Red and Luis come from “such different worlds,” but they’re able to find this undeniable connection. “The ‘For Once in My Life’ scene, I think it’s such a big moment for both of them, as they feel seen by each other for the first time. I think Red really gets to kind of let her walls down and explore this vulnerable kind of lover girl side that she secretly, I feel like, has always had, but just had the wall up, had the guard up. But it’s so sweet, and I think that was something that was really unique about Rise of Red was there was no kind of like romance element, which I feel like when you think of Descendants, you also think of like Mal and Ben and like princesses and the love’s true kiss and that whole thing, and I think it kind of brings it back to its Descendants roots.”
The Queen of Hearts did give her blessing at the end of the movie, but we had to ask Ora to chime in about her onscreen daughter’s love life. “I don’t really think she has a lot to stand on,” Ora quipped. She acknowledged that the Queen of Hearts is “definitely protective” over Red. “I think you really discover the mother of Queen of Hearts in this one, I think, compared to the last one. You see her be caring and do anything for her kids, which I really enjoyed.”
She continued, “As kind of a new-ish stepmom, I loved tapping into that side of me, and I surprised myself actually. I didn’t realize I could care about kids as much as I care about myself. No, kidding! I’m kidding. I loved every second of it.”
Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, Streaming Now, Disney+
