Joy Ride director Adele Lim will helm Princess Diaries 3

Adele Lim caught a falling star and put it in her pocket, and now she’s going to be the director of Princess Diaries 3, according to Deadline. It’s a big step forward for the franchise, which had its last installment, Royal Engagement, two decades ago. Legendary Garry Marshall directed the first two films, which starred Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. “As a diehard fan of the original Princess Diaries, I’m beyond excited to be a part of bringing the third iteration of this beloved franchise to life,” Lim said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating its core tenants of female power, joy and mentorship with audiences worldwide.”

A wise woman once sang that miracles happen when you believe, so we’ll put it out there now: if Princess Diaries 3 has a scene as raunchy as Stephanie Hsu’s tattoo reveal in Joy Ride, that alone would justify its existence. Of course, Lim also has family-friendly Disney bonafides as the screenwriter behind Raya And The Last Dragon as well as the blockbuster rom-com Crazy Rich Asians. Princess Diaries 3 is being written by Flora Gleeson, who penned The High Note. (When the project was announced in development in 2022, Supergirl‘s Aadrita Mukerji was attached as screenwriter.)

Anne Hathaway, a.k.a. the titular princess Mia Thermopolis, still isn’t officially attached, but she has signaled she’s in. Speaking with V Magazine earlier this year, she said the threequel was “in a good place”: “That’s all I can say. There’s nothing to announce yet. But we’re in a good place.” Chris Pine, who became Mia’s King Consort at the end of the second film, proposed a version directed by Luca Guadagnino back in May. Julie Andrews cast some doubt that she’d return when discussing the possibility back in 2022, although her doubts seemed to be about whether the movie would get made at all, so perhaps now that it’s moving forward they’d be able to convince her. That being said, the movie is called The Princess Diaries, and Mia became Queen (following her grandmother’s abdication) at the end of the last movie… seems highly likely we’ll see a true legacyquel and meet Mia’s daughter in the third film.