Anne Hathaway has revealed that the long-gestating “Princess Diaries 3” has begun “moving in the right direction.”
In honor of her new film, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” Hathaway sat down recently to speak with “Watch What Happens Live!” and SiriusXM host Andy Cohen. During their conversation, Cohen asked the Oscar winner for an update on the long-awaited third “Princess Diaries” film.
“I’m busy making baby number three, and that has sort of taken the place of knowing exactly when I can make ‘Princess Diaries 3,’” Hathaway joked, while holding her baby bump, before revealing, “I can say I think we had a story breakthrough.”
“I think that we’re moving in the right direction. The script that we were working on had, you know, we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants,” Hathaway added, noting, “But we all feel really good that this is going to be the one.”
You can watch her full remarks on the topic yourself in the video below.
Fans have been clamoring for a third “Princess Diaries” film ever since the franchise’s second installment, “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,” was released in 2004. A sequel has been in development for a decade, but plans were temporarily shelved after original franchise director Garry Marshall died in 2016. Six years later, Disney was reported to have renewed interest in producing a third installment in the franchise.
Those plans seemingly solidified in late 2024 when “Crazy Rich Asians” co-writer and “Joy Ride” director Adele Lim officially signed on to direct “Princess Diaries 3” and Hathaway announced she would be returning to reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis, Queen of Genovia.
Since then, updates about the sequel have been few and far between. However, in a May interview with E!, Lim seemingly hinted at the new creative direction for the project that Hathaway mentioned to Cohen.
“What was so special about this project is that all the fans of the original movie, myself included, are now mothers,” Lim said. “When I looked at the series and talked about it with Anne, there are so many wish-fulfillment movies for princesses. There are no wish-fulfillment movies for queens and that’s what we want to see.”
Hathaway, meanwhile, told Entertainment Weekly that same month that the “intention is to make ‘Princess Diaries’ hopefully next” and that the film’s creative team is “chipping away at the script,” after her attention was briefly taken away by “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” another long-awaited sequel which hit theaters earlier this year.
“If I learned anything from [‘Devil Wears Prada 2’], it’s that expectations are very, very high, and if you’re going to do it, you have to knock it out of the park,” Hathaway said at the time of her approach to “Princess Diaries 3.”
