Paddington 3 coming to make it all okay again

We know you don’t need anyone to tell you that the last year has been hard. But also: The last year or so has been hard, huh? Lots of chaos, lots of pandemic, very little marmalade, or the small brown bears who crave it. But no longer—on that last front, at least, as Studiocanal has confirmed that Paddington 3 is, indeed, in the works.

Fans of the franchise will recall that The Second Coming Of Paddington—or Paddington 2, if you’re being informal—arrived three years ago, in early 2018, and immediately became the movie people would forcibly grab you and insist was actually really, really good. And, indeed, Paul King’s story of Paddington Bear, professional criminal, was a deeply charming exploration of whimsy, kindness, and the foibles of the British penal system, i.e., exactly the sort of thing we need to knock the doldrums off ourselves during doldrum-heavy times. Hence our excitement (spurred on by an interview series co-star Hugh Bonneville gave last week) at news that the third installment in the trilogy is in the works, even if we don’t have a release date as of yet.

Specifically, Variety notes that Studiocanal has responded to questions about the film with a definitive, “We can confirm Studiocanal is working very hard on film 3 with the utmost craft and care—as with film 1 and 2.” Of course, things won’t be exactly the same, since King, who co-wrote and directed both films, won’t be directing the third. But at least Ben Whishaw, who also voices Paddington in the franchise’s ongoing Netflix show, is expected to return as the small, frequently befuddled bear.