The Princess Diaries 3 Cast Question Everyone’s Asking During the Franchise’s 25th Anniversary

Twenty-five years after Mia Thermopolis first learned she was secretly a princess, The Princess Diaries is having a genuine moment again, and it’s coming from two directions at once.

Disney spent 2026 celebrating the franchise’s anniversary with a dedicated exhibit, while behind the scenes, a long-awaited third film has quietly kept moving forward.

Naturally, the question fans keep circling back to is who from the original cast is actually coming back.

The anniversary celebration has been real and tangible. In June 2026, D23 and the Walt Disney Archives hosted a Genovian-themed pop-up experience at the Doheny Mansion in Los Angeles, the actual filming location used for the Genovian Consulate in the original film.

The one-day event let fans walk through rooms dressed with more than 30 original costumes and props from both The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, including gowns and tiaras worn by Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. A separate D23 x Street Food Cinema screening ran earlier in the spring.

Princess Diaries 3 itself has been in the works since 2022, but 2026 is when it’s picked up real momentum.

Adele Lim, known for Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon, signed on to direct, with Debra Martin Chase, who produced the original two films, returning as producer, and Flora Greeson writing the script.

Hathaway is also producing under her own Somewhere Pictures banner.

Hathaway’s own return as Mia was confirmed back in October 2024, when she posted a video reciting the franchise’s signature line, “Shut up!,” captioned “Miracles happen. Back to Genovia.” It’s the only cast confirmation that’s actually locked in at this point.

Everything else remains genuinely open. Julie Andrews, who played Queen Clarisse, has said in past interviews she wasn’t sure where her character would fit into a third film, though more recent reporting has described her as “in talks”, a step forward from uncertain, but still short of confirmed.

Chris Pine, who joined the franchise in the 2004 sequel as Nicholas Devereaux, has been asked directly about a return and said simply, “I don’t know anything,” while joking on a talk show that fans should “call Disney” on his behalf.

No reporting has confirmed the return of Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, or Robert Schwartzman, despite their popularity with longtime fans of the series.

Director Adele Lim has offered fans a reason for optimism without giving away specifics, telling Variety that people who loved the first two films “can look forward to a lot of fun returns”, a tease that’s fueled plenty of speculation but hasn’t translated into named confirmations yet.

Casting notices from August 2025 also pointed to a new character, a teenage girl named Olivia, believed to connect to Mia’s half-sister from the book series, suggesting the film may be building fresh material around Hathaway’s Mia rather than simply reuniting the full original ensemble.

For a franchise built on the idea that anyone might turn out to be royalty, it’s a fittingly uncertain moment: one confirmed lead, one hopeful maybe, and a cast list that’s likely to keep fans guessing until Disney is ready to make its next announcement official.

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