‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ Ending Explained: Is the Queen of Hearts No Longer a Villain?

Note: The following contains spoilers for the “Descendants: The Rise of Red” ending.

Can a villain truly be stopped from becoming a villain? That’s the question “Descendants: The Rise of Red” tries to answer, specifically in regards to the Queen of Hearts. And, in the end, the answer could go a few ways.

The fourth installment of Disney’s series centers on Red (Kylie Cantrall), the princess of Wonderland and rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora). When Red gets invited to Auradon Prep — courtesy of Principal Uma (China Anne McClain returning in the role) — her mother uses it as an opportunity to lead a coup.

In doing so, she sentences Cinderella (Brandy, reprising her role from the 1997 film) to death for “treason” — can you guess her method of choice? And, yes, getting the Queen’s iconic “Off with her head” catchphrase right was a challenge for Rita Ora. The actress and singer admits she definitely started to “overanalyze it.”

“I had to be like, ‘OK, I need to step away from this,’ because I was taking it so seriously, because of the history of the ‘Off with her head!'” Ora told TheWrap. “But I think it helps that I’m English, and it helped that I just sort of like, elevated my English accent.”

She continued, “I feel like in Disney movies, and with villains, they have this English kind of accent, but it’s not English. It’s almost a bit like universal English, where you don’t really know where they’re from, but they have this regal accent, you know? So I just enjoyed playing that, really, and I did my own version. I’ve got this like husky voice, so I just sort of like, amplified it, really.”

Red’s not totally onboard with her mother’s plans though, so she uses a pocket watch gifted to her by Maddox Hatter (Leonardo Nam) to go back in time with Cinderella’s daughter, Chloe (Malia Baker).

Together, they learn that the Queen of Hearts — known then as just Bridget — was actually best friends with Cinderella, before a cruel prank was played on her at “castlecoming.” Ella wasn’t responsible for the prank, but she didn’t help Bridget, because she was off falling in love with Prince Charming.

So, Red and Chloe’s plan is simple: stop Ulyana (Dara Reneé) and her villainous cohort from playing the prank the turns Bridget into a murderous queen.

And in the end, they manage to do just that. When Red and Chloe return to the present, the Queen of Hearts now wears a white and red dress, and her favorite card game is Hearts, not War. She appears to be reformed, but it’s hard to say for sure, considering the plot relies on Red being a villain kid (VK) who gets invited to Auradon.

It’s never made explicitly clear, and the queen herself, isn’t saying. In fact, she likes that there are a few different options with this ending.

“I think she definitely rediscovers her soft side for her daughter, you know, I think this film is about friendship and family. And sometimes you need family to sort of like, snap you back into this realm of love and happiness and appreciation,” Ora explained. “But I love the idea of the door being left open. I think that’s really cool. The ‘Rise of Red’ writers made a really great move on that.”

She added that, particularly for future sequel purposes, “It’s good that you know, you can go a few different ways.”

A fifth film hasn’t officially been announced as of yet, but it’s worth noting that Uma’s voiceover does give the classic “You didn’t think this was the end of the story, did you?” line at the end of the movie. So, another film is certainly possible.

“Descendants: The Rise of Red” is now streaming on Disney+.

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