Films and Series: A Beatrix Movie Is Planned as Royal Dramas Continue to Boom

A new film will place former Dutch Queen Beatrix at the center of a growing wave of royal dramas in European film and television. The project, provisionally titled "Beatrix," comes from Dutch producer Millstreet and will focus on her life around the year 2000, about two decades after she began her reign.

Beatrix, now 88, ruled the Netherlands from 1980 until 2013, when she handed the throne to her son, Willem-Alexander. The film will examine the pressure that monarchy placed on her and the role art played in helping her rediscover both freedom and herself. Her German-born husband, Prince Claus, who died in 2002, will also form part of the story. A release date has not been set, although producers expect it near the end of 2027.

The project belongs to the same franchise as "Máxima," the series about Argentine-born Queen Máxima that has attracted millions of viewers in Germany on RTL+ and ZDF. Before the third season of "Máxima" and the Beatrix film, a spin-off titled "The Other Royals: A Máxima Story" is expected to premiere next spring. It will feature court intrigues, relationship problems, scandals and political tensions.

One storyline will follow Mabel Wisse Smit, now 58, who became the wife of Willem-Alexander's brother, Prince Friso. Friso died in 2013 from injuries suffered in a skiing and avalanche accident. Another will focus on Margarita de Bourbon de Parme, Beatrix's niece. Margarita became part of a scandal in 2003 after she and her then-husband claimed in the press that the royal household had spied on and bugged them. The women have since repaired their relationship.

Amazon Prime Video and Sat.1 are also preparing a series about the life and love story of Sweden's Queen Silvia. The projects follow the success of Netflix's "The Crown," which ran for six seasons from 2016 to 2023 and helped drive the boom in royal productions across Europe.