Julie Andrews recently told InStyle magazine that she is not returning for “The Princess Diaries 3” opposite Anne Hathaway. The 90-year-old icon turned down the offer to reprise her role of Queen Clarisse in the movie, which will serve as a long-awaited sequel to 2001’s “The Princess Diaries” and 2004’s “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.”
“I think I probably passed… I think I’m retired, really, would be about the best description for that,” Andrews said about her decision not to return. “[The film’s creative team] asked me all last year if I would be keen to do it. It was very very hard to say ‘no,’ but I did because I thought I had a wonderful ride, and this one I felt would flourish very well and wouldn’t need Granny going in there at my age.”
Andrews has not acted on screen in years, although she has taken various voice roles over the last decade in movies such as “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “The King’s Daughter” and “Aquaman,” plus television series like “Bridgerton.” She told InStyle that she enjoys narrating the blockbuster Netflix series as Lady Whistledown since she can record her lines from home. Andrews added: “I do it mostly to keep my brain alive.”
Variety confirmed in November 2022 that Disney was developing a third installment in “The Princess Diaries” franchise with screenwriter Aadrita Mukerji (“Reacher,” “Supergirl”). Andrews told Access Hollywood a month later that she doubted she’d be back.
“I think we know that it’s probably not going to be possible,” she said at the time. “It was talked about very shortly after [“Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement”] came out, but it’s now how many years since then? And I am that much older and Annie the princess, our queen, is so much older. And I am not sure whether it would float or run.”
Before the third installment was officially put in development at Disney, Hathaway told Entertainment Tonight that she would be keen to bring Andrews back. She added: “We would go to where she was and put a green screen behind her and just make it happen.”
But Andrews is not returning after all. Adele Lim (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Raya and the Last Dragon”) signed on to direct “The Princess Diaries 3” in 2024. Hathaway will reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis, now Queen of Genovia, in the threequel. She said during an interview on SiriusXM’s “Radio Andy” earlier this year the script for the new movie recently went through a breakthrough.
“I think we are moving in the right direction,” she said at the time. “The script that we were working on — we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants, but we all feel really good that this is gonna be the one.”
Lim told Variety in May that the shooting and production schedule were still being worked out for “The Princess Diaries 3.’ A release date has yet to be announced.
The original “Princess Diaries,” based on the novel by Meg Cabot, was released in 2001 and was directed by the late Garry Marshall. Hathaway stars as an awkward American teenager who learns she’s the heir to the throne of the European kingdom of Genovia. Despite mixed reviews, the family film became a box office hit with $165 million in global ticket sales. The first sequel opened in 2004 and introduced the world to Chris Pine. It was equally successful in theaters with $134 million worldwide.
