Following the box office success of the Freaky Friday sequel, we’re excited to see another follow-up to an early 2000s comedy: The Princess Diaries 3. It’s been a little over a year since Anne Hathaway announced the movie was officially in the works with Adele Lim attached to direct. So, now as we await the beginning of production, we have a lot of questions about what to expect, and one just kind of got answered by an original cast member.
As you may recall, in 2001’s The Princess Diaries, Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis has a crush on the brother of her best friend, Robert Schwartzman’s Michael Moscovitz. The movie ends with them sharing a first kiss at Mia’s royal ball. However, the sequel completely replaced the object of her affections with Chris Pine’s Nicholas Devereaux (who has also publicly shown interest in this new movie as well). Schwartzman has now revealed that he’s had some conversations about the third movie. In his words:
For me, I’m just in standing-by mode waiting to see what the filmmakers want to do with this next chapter. If they want to bring Michael back to be a part of the journey of the characters, I’m obviously happy to support the efforts of the filmmakers, but certainly it’s very, very exciting for me to always hear fans say, ‘I need Michael back. I want Michael back.’
In a new interview with People, Schwartzman, who is now 42, said he’s had “very early days” talks about the possibility of returning to Princess Diaries 3. As he continued:
I’ve been told that they’re starting to imagine this world and how it’s going to be told, but I don’t know much beyond that.
It would certainly be a fun callback to see Mia’s crush from the first movie return somehow.
What might divide the fandom of the movies is whether they’re interested in Mia and Michael continuing their romance, Pine’s Nicholas being with Mia, or her having no romantic plotline at all. Schwartzman, who is also in the band Rooney and a filmmaker, thinks the passion of fans could help Michael have a “major” part in the threequel. As he continued:
Certainly the opportunity is there for people to create that tidal wave of interest. And I’m sure the people on the other side will be listening to it.
For the time being, the latest we’ve heard about The Princess Diaries 3 was in August, when director Adele Lim put out an open casting call for a new character named Olivia Robinson. The character is described as a mixed-race 15-year-old who is described as “smart, sarcastic, armored and observant”.
We have yet to hear if Disney has chosen the actress yet, nor have we heard any other developments on the movie, such as whether Julie Andrews will be back. As of late, Hathaway has been busy filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 with Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and more. The movie reportedly wrapped just a couple of weeks ago, so who knows, maybe more updates on her other legacy sequel will come soon.
Either way, we’re not going to shut up about this upcoming release.