After years of rumors, casting calls, script rewrites and a castle sitting empty somewhere in Europe waiting to be used, Princess Diaries 3 is apparently still happening. Anne Hathaway confirmed as recently as July 2026 that the creative team has had what she called a “story breakthrough,” though she also admitted they essentially had to start the script over to get there. Director Adele Lim, who helmed Joy Ride, is attached and has been vocal about her vision for the film. “There are no wish fulfillment movies for queens,” Lim told E! in a May 2026 interview.

“The girls who grew up believing in princesses, we want to grow up believing that there is a world in which you can be a queen and be fabulous and kicking ass.” The plot appears to follow Mia as queen of Genovia while introducing Olivia, her teenage half sister who she fights to protect after discovering she is being mistreated by extended family.

Hathaway has been equally enthusiastic. She knows “everybody wants it,” she told Entertainment Weekly, and she and her team are chipping away at the script to make sure they get it right. “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.”

I am going to stop her right there.

Not sure who these imaginary people are who want this but I can assure you the streets are not clamoring for Princess Diaries 3. And the Devil Wears Prada 2 reference is exactly the problem. Nobody wanted that either. We said so repeatedly and clearly. They made it anyway, the script was lazy, the fashion was uninspired, and none of the magic that made the original special showed up on screen. The cast showed up, collected their checks, and gave us something that felt obligatory rather than inspired.

I predict the same thing happening here.

Hollywood has a very specific kind of greed that involves squeezing every last dollar out of anything that once made people feel something. It is not creative ambition. It is IP extraction. The original Princess Diaries worked because it was a genuinely charming film about an awkward girl discovering she was more than she thought she was. Princess Diaries 2 pushed that goodwill to its limit. A third film is not continuing a story. It is refusing to let a good thing rest.

Sometimes the most respectful thing you can do for a film people love is leave it alone. The magic and mystery of the original exists precisely because it had an ending. Every sequel chips away at that a little more.

A castle is apparently already rented and sitting empty waiting for Anne Hathaway’s schedule to clear. That detail tells you everything you need to know about where the heart of this project actually lives. It is not in the story. It is in the real estate.

We do not need Princess Diaries 3. We really do not.