‘Maxima,’ Now Gearing Up for Season 2, Sold by Beta Film to 85 Territories Worldwide, Drops New Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

Consolidating its status as one of Europe’s major post-peak TV sales hits, Dutch royalty series “Maxima,” has been licensed by Beta Film to over 85 territories around the world. 

Often compared to “The Crown,” the series dramatizes the real-life odyssey of Argentina’s Máxima Zorreguieta from a fun-loving her-own-woman as a New York-based economist to becoming an institution, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.  

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News of the sales smash comes as Beta Film has shared with Variety in exclusivity a new trailer for Season 2, as Beta Film gears up to offer “Maxima’s” 12 episodes at late February’s London TV Screenings. 

Among new licensing deals, Beta Film has closed “Maxima” with HBO Max in France, as well as with major SVOD service LG U+in South Korea and with Arabic-language Dubai TV for the Middle East and Northern Africa. Telco channel Nova will release “Maxima” in Greece and Cyprus. 

The sales add to a slew of accords announced from 2024 when “Maxima” bowed at Canneseries, led by deals with HBO Max for Latin America and public broadcaster SBS in Australia, plus multi-broadcaster deals to Scandinavia and others to German-speaking territories. Season 2 will be released March 14 on Videoland, the streaming service of RTL Netherlands, where Season 1 smashed records, natural enough when it offers an intimate portrait of the country’s crowned Queen. 

In international, however, Episode 1 attracted over 1 million viewers on Atresmedia’s SVOD service Atresplayer, hit the Top 10 of international series on Italy’s RaiPlay and broke records on HBO Max in Latin America where it became the best-viewed premiere ever in Máxima’s native Argentina. It also ranked in the Top 10 on HBO Max for multiple weeks over the whole of Latin America. 

Based on the book “Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland” by Marcia Luyten and produced by Dutch company Millstreet Films (“The Neighbors”), in co-production with FBO and Beta Film, the story of Máxima, at least in its first two seasons is a spectacular case of a universal narrative: the transition from young to full adulthood. 

Season 1 sometimes played as a comedy of contrasts, as when the outgoing Máxima (Delfina Chaves) and a tongue-tied Willem-Alexander (Martijn Lakemeir) first meet at the Seville Spring Fair in 1999. Maxima drags him out to dance. She’s a relaxed mover, the future King of the Netherlands dances like a clodhopper. 

The series is, above al,l however a royal love story seen from Maxima’s point of view. Later, Maxima is introduced to the Netherlands’ shrewd ad kindly Queen Beatrix who tries to put her at ease. The past of Máxima’s father Jorge Zorreguieta, one of the longest-serving civilian ministers in Argentina’s murderous 1976-1983 military dictatorship, prompts, however, a row between Maxima and Willem-Alexander and is aired by the Dutch press. Season 1 climaxes with the couple’s engagement.

As Variety has observed, some fairytales end with a royal wedding. Season 2 of “Maxima” starts with one, caught in the new trailer. Outwardly composed, Maxima is a bundle of nerves. There’s a deeper reason than fear of a snafu at the ceremony. “Am I really ready to serve 17 million people?” Maxima asks herself. “I don’t know,” she answers candidly.

Directed by Saskia Diesing & Joosje Duk and produced by Millstreet Films’ Rachel Van Bommel, later Season 2 scenes take in Maxima pregnant, then a young mother. She seems still very much in love with Willem-Alexander. Season 2 also takes in a replica of Maxima’s legendary Valentino wedding gown. But marriage is not a bed of roses. Maxima is subjected to intense public scrutiny and sometimes criticism. “They’re destroying me,” Maxima storms of one day’s newspapers. “I want to be judged for everything I have fought for. For who I am,” adds Maxima, a staunch defender of immigrants and LGBTQ causes.

There are also tragedies. The real drama, however, is how Maxima, as Season 2 races towards her coronation, can carry out her responsibilities as a wife, mother and future Queen while retaining her own voice. “We all have to make compromises,” says Queen Beatrix. Maxima looks set to learn that sometimes the hard way.