While I think The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a fun sequel, I’m ready for the next movie on the setlist of Anne Hathaway’s “Eras tour.” For nearly a decade, fans of the Princess Diaries movies hoped for a third installment, and Anne Hathaway confirmed in 2024 that the sequel was officially in development and would be directed by Crazy Rich Asian’s Adele Lim. However, updates about the film have been scarce since then. Luckily, recent comments Lim regarding the upcoming Princess Diaries 3 have reignited my excitement.
A number of OG actors from The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel (which are available to stream with a Disney+ subscription) have expressed interest in returning to the franchise. So far, only Hathaway (who plays Mia Thermopolis) has been confirmed. In time, the Joy Ride director eventually put out an open casting call for a 15-year-old female lead character. With that, fans were left with questions about the direction of the sequel and whether any other OG characters would return. Thankfully, Lim provided some answers on the casting front during a recent interview with Variety:
If you were a fan of the original first two movies, I think you can look forward to a lot of fun returns. We’re going to be able to shoot in Europe and really show the audience Genovia in its full glory.
Whew! Fun returns, plural! While I’m a little disappointed about the lack of specific name drops, this update gives me a lot of hope for some essential reprisals. A Princess Diaries movie would not be complete without appearances from Julie Andrews and Hector Elizondo, who play Mia’s grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi, and her bodyguard and confidant, Joe, respectively.
I’d also love to see Chris Pine reprise his role as Nicholas Devereaux, Mia’s love interest from the second movie. To that end, Pine previously said he would happily return to the role that “changed his life,” but said at the time that he’d yet to officially receive a call.
Overall, the Princess Diaries 3 script has seemingly been unshelved and reshelved several times since the franchise’s original director, Garry Marshall, died in 2016, but Hathaway has been bullish about its progress. So far, all that’s been revealed about the storyline, alongside the young lead’s casting call, is that it will include the character Olivia Robinson, Mia Thermopolis’ smart, sarcastic teenage half-sister, who appears later in Cabot’s book series as Queen Mia is planning her wedding.
I’m here for the idea of Mia potentially mentoring a new princess after her own royal journey, but this information did leave me worried about Mia’s story possibly taking a back seat. However, I’m happy that Lim’s comments seem to suggest that won’t be the case:
We just want to make the story right because it is a franchise that is so beloved by so many people. There are so many movies that are wish fulfillment for princesses, we don’t have a lot of wish fulfillment movies for queens. That’s what we are setting out to do here, to show a woman in her full power.
I absolutely love that Lim made that point, because it aligns with the end of the second movie. At the conclusion of that film, Mia makes the decision to not marry, per tradition, but still takes the throne as ruler of Genovia. I absolutely need to see Anne Hathaway as an independent baddie queen, so I’m glad Lim’s on the same page.
That’s not to say I would be mad if Mia were getting married now (as long as it is to Nicholas). Hathaway and Pine had the most magnetic enemies to lovers chemistry, and they’re both such good actors that I have no doubt they can fall back into it over two decades later.
There are still a lot of unknown variables surrounding this long-hoped-for threequel, and production start window hasn’t even been confirmed. Because of that, and the fact that the script is still clearly being written, fans definitely won’t see The Princess Diaries 3 on the 2026 movie schedule, and it could even skip 2027 as well. However, progress is progress, and these updates are encouraging.
