Twenty-five years after Anne Hathaway first stumbled into Genovian royalty, she marked the anniversary by opening a window onto the world that changed her life.

On August 3, 2026, Hathaway shared behind-the-scenes footage from The Princess Diaries, including candid moments with Julie Andrews and director Garry Marshall. She described the experience as one of the most magical things that had ever happened to her and ended her tribute with a message to Marshall, who died in 2016.

“Love you Garry,” she wrote. “Miss you every day.”

The post captured why the movie still carries such emotional power. The Princess Diaries was not simply a makeover comedy about an awkward teenager discovering she was royal. It brought together an 18-year-old newcomer, one of cinema’s most beloved legends and a director known for creating unusually warm film sets.

Released on August 3, 2001, the movie earned more than $108 million in the United States and Canada and approximately $165 million worldwide. A sequel followed in 2004.

Now a third installment is being developed, with Hathaway expected to return as Mia Thermopolis. As Genovia prepares for another possible chapter, the original cast has reached very different destinations.

Anne Hathaway — Mia Thermopolis

When Hathaway played Mia, she had virtually no feature-film experience.

She had appeared on the television series Get Real, but The Princess Diaries was her first released movie. Marshall reportedly responded not only to her audition but also to the unplanned physical comedy she brought into the room.

That quality became essential to Mia.

Before learning that she is heir to the throne of Genovia, Mia is a shy San Francisco teenager who struggles to speak in class, dislikes attention and feels invisible beside more confident classmates. Her royal education includes posture lessons, formal dinners and one of the most famous makeovers of the early 2000s.

Yet the movie’s deeper transformation is not cosmetic.

Mia must decide whether she can accept responsibility without becoming someone entirely different. Hathaway made the character’s fear believable while preserving the intelligence beneath her awkwardness.

The role turned her into a star.

She returned in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and later moved through romantic comedies, dramas, musicals and major studio productions. Her credits include The Devil Wears Prada, Rachel Getting Married, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar and Ocean’s 8.

In 2013, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables.

Her career grew far beyond Mia, but Hathaway never treated the character as an embarrassment from her youth. She has repeatedly spoken about the opportunity with gratitude.

In 2024, she confirmed that she would return for a third film, with Adele Lim announced as director. Development has since taken a new direction after an earlier script was set aside, meaning the project remains active but does not yet have a confirmed release date or complete cast.

Hathaway has changed more than anyone associated with the original film.

She entered Genovia as an unknown teenager. She may return as an Oscar-winning actress and producer helping guide the franchise that introduced her to the world.

Julie Andrews — Queen Clarisse Renaldi

Julie Andrews arrived on the set with a very different history.

By 2001, she was already an international icon through Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and decades of stage and screen work. Casting her as Queen Clarisse gave the movie instant authority.

Clarisse begins as a formal, intimidating grandmother who believes Mia must quickly learn the duties of royalty. Andrews prevents her from becoming cold. Beneath the posture lessons and controlled expression is a woman trying to build a relationship with the granddaughter she barely knows.

The bond between Andrews and Hathaway became the heart of the movie.

Andrews returned for the sequel, where she famously sang onscreen despite having lost much of her singing voice following throat surgery in the late 1990s.

She later built a significant voice-acting career, appearing in the Shrek and Despicable Me franchises and serving as the voice of Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton.

Whether she will return as Clarisse remains uncertain.

Andrews has expressed doubts, noting how much time has passed and how difficult it would be to make another film without Marshall. Her hesitation gives the proposed sequel its greatest emotional challenge.

A return to Genovia would not feel complete without its queen.

But any continuation must also acknowledge that the original family has lost the director who brought them together.

Héctor Elizondo — Joe

Héctor Elizondo played Joe, Clarisse’s head of security, limousine driver and quiet emotional partner.

Joe watches Mia’s transformation with patience and humor. He also recognizes the loneliness beneath Clarisse’s royal discipline.

Their understated romance becomes one of the movie’s most satisfying relationships. It develops through glances, dances and acts of care rather than dramatic declarations.

Elizondo was one of Marshall’s most trusted collaborators, appearing in nearly every feature the director made. Before The Princess Diaries, their work together included Pretty Woman, in which Elizondo played another dignified man guiding someone through an unfamiliar elite world.

After Genovia, Elizondo continued working steadily in film and television. He starred in the medical drama Chicago Hope, appeared for years on Last Man Standing and remained a familiar voice and character actor.

He returned as Joe in The Princess Diaries 2, where the character finally married Clarisse.

Elizondo has spoken warmly about the franchise, but his participation in the third movie has not been officially confirmed.

At 89, he remains active, carrying the legacy of both Joe and the long creative friendship he shared with Marshall.

Mandy Moore — Lana Thomas

Mandy Moore played Lana Thomas, the popular cheerleader who humiliates Mia before suddenly becoming interested in her royal status.

The role was Moore’s first credited film performance.

At the time, she was primarily known as a teenage pop singer. Lana allowed her to play against her public image, turning sweetness into polished cruelty.

After The Princess Diaries, Moore developed careers in both music and acting.

She starred in A Walk to Remember, voiced Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled and later found her most acclaimed television role as Rebecca Pearson on This Is Us. The family drama earned her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations and introduced her to an audience far beyond the teenage pop era.

Moore has also continued recording music and raising a family.

Lana did not appear in the 2004 sequel, and Moore has said she would be interested in seeing where the former high-school antagonist ended up. No official announcement has confirmed her involvement in the third film.

A return could offer the character something the original story never provided: the chance to become more than the girl who bullied a future queen.

Heather Matarazzo — Lilly Moscovitz

Heather Matarazzo played Lilly, Mia’s outspoken best friend.

Lilly is intelligent, politically engaged and often insensitive without realizing it. She supports Mia but also resents how quickly royal attention changes their friendship.

Matarazzo had already received acclaim for the independent film Welcome to the Dollhouse before joining the cast.

Afterward, she appeared in films including Saved!, Hostel: Part II and both Scream 3 and Scream 5. She also continued working in television and theater.

Matarazzo has been open about the instability of an acting career and the way Hollywood categorizes performers who do not fit narrow ideas of conventional glamour.

She returned as Lilly in The Princess Diaries 2, where the character served as Mia’s close friend and royal assistant.

Matarazzo has expressed enthusiasm about returning again. As of the 25th anniversary, however, Hathaway remains the only original star whose participation has been firmly established.

Lilly’s presence would matter because she knew Mia before the crown.

She is one of the few people who can speak to a queen as the awkward teenager she once was.

Robert Schwartzman — Michael Moscovitz

Robert Schwartzman played Lilly’s older brother Michael, the musician who quietly falls for Mia before she becomes the center of international attention.

Michael offers an alternative to the popularity Mia initially believes she wants. He likes her before the makeover and sees value in the qualities she considers embarrassing.

Schwartzman’s real-life band Rooney appeared in the movie as Michael’s group, Flypaper.

Unlike several of his co-stars, he did not build a long career as a major screen actor. Music became his primary path, with Rooney releasing multiple albums and touring internationally.

Schwartzman later moved behind the camera. He directed films including Dreamland, The Unicorn and The Good Half and became involved in independent film production and distribution.

Michael was absent from The Princess Diaries 2, with the sequel introducing Chris Pine’s Nicholas Devereaux as Mia’s new romantic interest.

Fans have never stopped debating which man belonged beside her.

Schwartzman’s return has not been confirmed, but his journey from actor to musician and filmmaker reflects one of the cast’s most dramatic changes. The young man who played songs in a garage eventually became the person directing the entire set.

The Director Who Cannot Return

Garry Marshall’s absence hangs over every conversation about a third film.

He directed both existing installments and helped shape their generous, slightly chaotic tone. Cast members have repeatedly remembered his sets as encouraging places where improvisation, mistakes and personal warmth were welcomed.

Marshall died in July 2016 at 81.

For Hathaway, the 25th anniversary was therefore both a celebration and a memorial. The footage she shared preserved a young cast at the beginning of something none of them could fully understand.

Marshall saw a princess in an unknown 18-year-old actress.

He also created the environment in which Andrews could pass a kind of cinematic inheritance to her.

A new director can return to Genovia, but no sequel can recreate that first meeting.

Genovia Is Returning to a Different World

The original film ended with Mia accepting her identity without surrendering her personality.

Twenty-five years later, the cast has lived out different versions of that same challenge.

Hathaway escaped the limits of her breakthrough and became one of her generation’s leading actresses. Andrews continued working after losing the singing voice that had made her famous. Elizondo built a career on quiet authority. Moore reinvented herself through television, Matarazzo persisted outside Hollywood’s preferred mold, and Schwartzman stepped behind the camera.

The movie gave each of them a lasting image.

It did not determine what they became.

That is what makes a third chapter meaningful. Audiences are not simply waiting to see another crown, makeover or Genovian ball. They want to know what became of people they first met when they—and the actors—were younger.

Mia once entered a ballroom terrified that everyone was watching her.

When she returns, she will enter as the person carrying the future of Genovia.

The greatest change will not be visible in a new hairstyle or royal dress.

It will be the 25 years written across every face—and the empty director’s chair belonging to the man who first invited them into the kingdom.