‘The Spanish Princess’ Cast Misses Nadia Parkes’s Rosa, Too

You might be feeling like there’s something missing from The Spanish Princess Season 2. No, there’s still sumptuous costumes, hot and heavy love scenes, and more Tudor drama than we can handle…but the bubbly, girly vibe of Season 1 is gone.

Now maybe that’s because this is the part of the story doomed to get darker, but I think something else is going on. The Spanish Princess Season 1 had a triumvirate of besties front and center. Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope), Lina de Cardonnes (Stephanie Levi-John), and Rosa de Vargas (Nadia Parkes) were three Spanish beauties who had each others’ backs through thick and thin. Together they infused the show with that bubbly, girlish energy that Season 2 of The Spanish Princess is sorely lacking.

My theory? The Spanish Princess feels different this season because Nadia Parkes left the show at the end of Season 1. As it happens, I’m not the only person who misses Nadia Parkes in The Spanish Princess Season 2. Both Charlotte Hope and Stephanie Levi-John told Decider they missed having their Rosa around, too.

“No, I actually really, really missed having those trio of girls,” Charlotte Hope said. “We were also just really good friends in real life. It really was a little posse of girl power together. Especially like, we all started that job, and it was such a big, exciting job for us. We got to go on that adventure together.”

Hope added that being away from her “girl power” trio helped her understand what Catherine of Aragon was going through during Season 2.

“I think a lot of Catherine’s story in the second series is about loneliness,” Hope said. “Yes, she has the relationship with Henry, but that is so toxic so much of the time. Really, she becomes more and more isolated. I really felt that. Obviously we’re not these characters, but we do spend most waking hours being these characters. Just the physicality of feeling completely on my own for a lot of the filming made me feel very isolated.”

The good news, though, is all three actresses are friends in real life, and…Nadia Parkes (and Rosa) might be coming back? Maybe? They wouldn’t confirm??

“Nadia and I, outside of The Spanish Princess, have a really lovely bond. At times, it did feel like I genuinely really missed her being around,” Stephanie Levi-John said. “You’re going to have to wait and see whether or not she pops up this time around. I’m not giving any spoilers, bud. I’m not giving any spoilers. [Laughs]”

Hope was even more cryptic: “In a hypothetical world in which Nadia did come back, I would be incredibly grateful for her to be there.”

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