Genovia will be carrying on without its queen. Julie Andrews has confirmed that she will not appear in The Princess Diaries 3, the long-awaited third installment of the Disney franchise that Anne Hathaway recently revealed is moving forward with a new script.
“I’m not going to be in it,” Andrews told TODAY in a new interview published August 10. “I think the story is slightly different, and I’m not quite sure how they’re dealing with that. But it’s too late for me to do it. I think the story has to continue in Princess Mia. It’s her story. It’s not really mine.”
Andrews, 90, originated the role of Queen Clarisse Renaldi – the imperious grandmother who informs Mia Thermopolis that she is heir to the throne of Genovia – in the 2001 film The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall and based on Meg Cabot’s novel. She returned for the 2004 sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which gave her a duet with Raven-Symoné on “Your Crowning Glory” and marked one of Andrews’ first times singing on screen following her 1997 vocal cord surgery.
Hathaway, who starred as Mia in both films, confirmed earlier this year that a third film is moving forward at Disney.
The interview also touched on the forthcoming Julie Andrews documentary, announced by The Walt Disney Company for a 2027 release and directed by R.J. Cutler. Andrews sat for several days of interviews for the project, which she has not yet seen.
“I’m a little nervous,” she admitted. “But I figure at this age of mine now, it’s probably the time to have agreed to do it.”
On stage, Andrews made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend in 1954 before originating the roles of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Queen Guenevere in Camelot. She later returned to Broadway in Victor/Victoria, earning a Tony nomination she famously declined in 1996.
