Could Anne Hathaway once more don the crown of Genovia? If Disney has its way, then she will. It’s still very early days, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, plans are afoot for a third outing for ‘The Princess Diaries’.
Based on a novel series created by Meg Cabot that launched in 2000, the 2001 original saw Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, a socially awkward but happy teenager living in and attending private school in San Francisco with her mother and her cat.
Mia’s life is thrown for a loop when she learns from her mother Helen Thermopolis (Caroline Goodall) that her deceased father, Philippe Renaldi (Rene Auberjonois), was the Crown Prince of Genovia.
To keep the royal reigns from passing to another family due to a broken bloodline, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Dame Julie Andrews) seeks the favor of her estranged granddaughter in hopes that she will take her father’s place as the Crown Princess. While Mia contemplates her future, her grandmother insists on turning her from a social misfit to a lady fit for the throne.
And that, of course, causes further chaos for Mia and best friend Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo) as she figures out how to navigate school, hormones and the challenges of a small European country.
Much of the cast returned for the sequel – 2004’s ‘The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement’ – which added extra wrinkles, including the presence of Chris Pine’s Nicholas Devereaux, a potential threat to Mia’s claim to the throne who ends up as her love interest.
Garry Marshall directed both of the movies, but his death in 2016 meant that a lot of the forward momentum was taken out of any plan for a third film.
Still, rumors would pop up from time to time and this appears the closest that anyone has gotten to an actual plan for a threequel.
Debra Martin Chase, who produced the movies is back for the new film, with Melissa Stack, the screenwriter behind the Cameron Diaz comedy ‘The Other Woman’ and the 2020 Disney+ feature ‘Godmothered’, is executive producing.
And Disney has Aadrita Mukerji, who has worked on series including ‘Supergirl’, ‘Reacher’ and ‘Quantum Leap’, writing the script.
What the company doesn’t have yet, at least in an official, signed-to-a-deal capacity, is Hathaway, though she’s often said that she’s more than willing to return to the world of the ‘Diaries’ – even as recently as last month.
And while Andrews has been more likely to pour cold water on the concept, feeling that the time may have passed for another movie, there’s still a chance she could be convinced by Disney.
With more than $300 million in the bank from the first two movies and a big fanbase that has introduced their children to the movies, it’s hardly surprising that Disney would want to keep hope alive.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since we first met Mia Thermopolis, the quirky high schooler who discovers she’s actually a princess about to inherit the throne of a far-flung country in 2001’s “
The early 2000s were the best when it came to teen comedies. We should feel truly #blessed that we got to exist at the same time as these coming-of-age tales.
Fifteen years ago, 
1. Hathaway landed the part of Mia partly because Garry Marshall’s granddaughters saw her audition tape and said she had the best “princess hair.”
3. Hathaway only had one audition for the film. As she told 
5. Mia’s cat Fat Louie? Hathaway’s real-life pet (above). It had to be doubled by three different cats, one that could be carried, one that would sit perfectly still, one who could jump, and the last one who sits on the envelope at the end of the movie.
7. “The Princess Diaries” is the only major role for musician 
9. Hathaway’s bushy hairpiece was so unruly, it was nicknamed “The beast.” And her out-of-control fake eyebrows took an hour to apply since each hair had to be individually applied.
11. “The Princess Diaries” was a family affair: The girls seeking Mia’s autograph are Lilly and Charlotte, Marshall’s twin granddaughters. And Clarisse’s secretary Charlotte, is played by Kathleen, his daughter.
13. The romance between Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) and Joseph (Hector Elizondo) wasn’t in the script, and the two actors improvised their dance scene.
15. Hathaway told HuffPost Live that “Princess Diaries” was “a great first job,” but she struggled to land more serious acting gigs afterwards. “It was hard get into rooms, to be taken seriously for roles that weren’t princesses.”
17.
Mia Thermopolis (
Dust off your tiaras,