It’s Been 84 Years and Now We Might Finally Get a Third ‘Princess Diaries’ Movie

Like everyone born sometime around the Nineties and raised in the early 2000s, I see Anne Hathaway as much more than an Academy Award-winning actress and talented performer— in my eyes, she is and forever will be Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, Princess and then Queen of Genovia.

Both 2001’s The Princess Diaries—where a young Mia Thermopolis learns that she’s actually the crown princess of the small but fierce European country of Genovia—and 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement—where she discovers she has to marry before she’s allowed to take the Genovian throne—have been pillars of my adolescence and remain comfort movies I turn to at least once a year. Julie Andrews as Queen Clarisse? As iconic as they come. Her love story with Héctor Elizondo’s Joe? Beautiful and moving. The scene where Chris Pine teaches Anne Hathaway how to shoot an arrow? The stuff of dreams.

So you can imagine how I’m feeling now that we have gotten a pretty official confirmation that the oh-so-desired third movie on the series is finally in the works. While not many details have been released beyond the statement that yes, Disney is putting together a script for a The Princess Diaries 3 movie, let’s still lay down the basics of what we know so far— and then keep our ears alert for any future news.

What do we know about the plot of The Princess Diaries 3?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a script for The Princess Diaries 3 is being written right as we speak by screenwriter Aadrita Mukerji— who also worked on television shows like Supergirl, The Endgame, and Reacher. Producer Debra Martin Chase is also returning to the project after the first two instalments—while there have been no indications as to who might be replacing the late director Garry Marshall, who worked on both The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2.

While not much more is known about the project, sources do say that the movie will indeed be a continuation of the previous two instalments rather than a reboot—thank you fandom gods—so we can very well speculate to our heart’s desire. Since Princess Diaries 2 ended right with the coronation of Mia as Genovia’s new Queen, it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that this new movie might tackle the highs and lows of ruling a country.

And of course, we have to have some family drama—did Mia actually end up marrying the charming Lord Nicholas Deveraux? Do they have heirs of their own and will we get to follow their stories, à la Disenchanted? What about Clarisse and Joe, who did get married in Princess Diaries 2?

Will all the old characters return in The Princess Diaries 3?

As for the characters that we will get to see in Princess Diaries 3, speculation is still the name of the game. One would assume that everyone should return to their roles, considering that the movie will be a continuation and not a reboot, but no one has given their confirmation so far—production has only just started, after all.

While actors like Anne Hathaway and Chris Pine are much more booked and busy than they were in the early 2000s—Princess Diaries was actually Anne Hathaway’s first big movie role—they could very well return to reprise their roles with a bit of adjusting to everyone’s schedules. 

Anne Hathaway actually expressed her interest in picking the shoes and tiaras of Mia Thermopolis back up multiple times over the years. In a 2019 interview on Watch What Happens Live, reported by Town & Country, she said that “I want to do it, Julie [Andrews] wants to do it, Debra Martin Chase our producer wants to do it. We all really want it to happen. It’s just, we don’t want to do it unless it’s perfect, because we love it just as much as you guys love it. It’s as important to us as it is to you and we don’t want to deliver anything until it’s ready. But we’re working on it”.

So it seems like there is some interest— we’ll just have to wait and see how things continue during the pre-production phase and if the script will be, in Anne Hathaway’s own words, “perfect” enough to convince all the main cast to return to Genovia once more.

So when will The Princess Diaries 3 release?

Considering how the project is in its earliest of early stages, it’s unlikely we’re going actually to get to see it before 2024—maybe even more. That leaves us plenty of time to rewatch the first and second movies—as if we don’t know all the lines by heart, or maybe that’s just me—and get excited about all the new details that will be released as the project movies forward.

(source: The Hollywood Reporter; featured image: Disney)