Upon McQuiston's own decision, later editions of the book replace all references to Harry Potter with other dialogue or references.
Also, another scene in which President Claremont vaguely references having said something that upset an Israeli ambassador has been replaced in later editions with a vague reference to an offensive remark against the Swedish prime minister.
Word of God: McQuiston tweeted the birthplaces and times of Alex, Henry, June, and Nora "for the astrology crowd." Specifically:
Alex: March 27, 1998, at 2:07 PM in Austin, Texas
Henry: March 12, 1997, at 5:03 PM in London
June: October 14, 1995, at 7:37 PM in San Francisco, California
Nora: December 15, 1996, at 5:38 AM in Montpelier, Vermont (the first tweet says PM, but a reply tweet says, "I meant AM for Nora's birth time")
The film:
Actor-Inspired Element: According to the director, Taylor Zakhar Perez was the one who came up with using "Bad Reputation" for the opening credits.
Actor-Shared Background: Like his character Prince Henry, Nicholas Galitzine is also a prince — he's the direct descendant of House of Golitsyn / Galitzine, an exiled Russian noble family. note The Golitsyns were powerful and high-ranked boyars, which is the highest Eastern European noble rank, but doesn't have a direct English equivalent; "prince" is the closest translation. His grandfather, father and Nicholas himself are styled as Prince Galitzine. This article contains more info about the actor's Blue Blood heritage.
Dawson Casting: In the book (which takes place over the course of a year), Alex and Henry turn 22 and 23 respectively midway through. They appear to be slightly older in the movie (Alex is a law student, rather than an undergraduate as he is in the book), but Taylor Zakhar Perez at 31 was still significantly older than his character. Nicholas Galitzine was borderline, age 27 playing Henry at perhaps 24.
Permanent Placeholder: The Perfume Genius cover of "Can't Help Falling In Love" was intended to be a placeholder until a new cover could be done for the film. The director ended up loving it so much he kept it in.
Playing Against Type: Nicholas Galitzine's most popular film prior to this is the alleged military propaganda Purple Hearts (2022), where he plays a Republican Marine who constantly bickers with his liberal, woke love interest about socialism. Here, he portrays the gay, open-minded Prince Henry who believes that the monarchy is outdated, and who falls in love with the first son of a democratic U.S. president.
Typecasting: Prince Henry is also one of Nicholas Galitzine's three royal-related roles: the other ones being as Prince Robert in Cinderella and as King James' lover George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, in the upcoming television series Mary & George. The typecast is taken even further when one considers Galitzine's actual royal heritage (see above).
and found out there's no evidence about it as she couldn't find the original fanfic though she did allegedly suspect that McQuiston wrote a Social Network real-person fic due to the writing style.