Will The Princess Bride 2 Ever Happen?
According to the cast of the original film, The Princess Bride 2 will never happen.
The Princess Bride is one of the greatest films of all time, having earned the honor in 2016 of being added to the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” For nearly 40 years, it has been one of the most quoted films, from “Never start a land war in Asia,” “Have fun storming the castle,” to “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” This raises the question, why was a sequel never made, and what’s stopping one from coming out?
Released in 1987, The Princess Bride was based on the book by William Goldman, and it was originally going to be part of a larger story. Starring Cary Elwes as Westley, and Robin Wright as Buttercup, with an amazing supporting cast featuring Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Carol Kane, Wallace Shawn, and Chris Sarandon, the film was only a mild success until the home video release, when it became one of the greatest cult classic movies of all time.
A sequel today, almost 40 years later, would be an immediate box-office smash, and as it turns out, The Princess Bride 2 was being worked on at one point. William Goldman started writing a sequel novel about Westley and Buttercup rescuing their son from a man with no skin on his face. The tentative name was Buttercup’s Baby, and revised editions of the original novel included it as a bonus chapter.
Goldman continued to insist that the follow-up would be done in time for the 50-year anniversary in 2023; unfortunately, he passed away in 2018, leaving the novel incomplete. The author owned all of the rights to The Princess Bride in print and film, and his estate has shown no interest in pursuing a sequel. As inconceivable as that may be, the cast and crew of the fantasy classic don’t seem to mind.
In 2017, Robin Wright was asked in an interview by E! News about a Princess Bride sequel, and she explained, “I think they entertained the idea for a minute, we thought, ‘Don’t ruin it. Please don’t ruin it.'” Recently, her co-star Cary Elwes expressed the same sentiment, bluntly saying, “There’s no reboot.” Years ago, the Saw star expressed his feelings about a sequel on Twitter by delightfully paraphrasing yet another famous quote from the film:
Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra’s quote is the closest a sequel has come to reality. With no second novel to use for the story and an uninterested cast, it seems there is no chance that The Princess Bride 2 will ever be made. That hasn’t stopped fans of the film from creating their own remakes, which normally would not be notable, except in this case, the fans include Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas.
Remember the bizarre streaming service that focused on bite-sized two-minute-long videos released weekly, Quibi? One of the first projects for the service following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was a celebrity-filled remake of The Princess Bride, with major stars trading off roles each week. This was a very real thing that did happen, and you can watch clips of it below courtesy of Vanity Fair:
Other stars attached to the strange project included Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Dave Bautista, Diego Luna, Elijah Wood, Jon Hamm, Common, Chris Pine, Tiffany Haddish, Beanie Feldstein, J.K. Simmons, Giancarlo Esposito, Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka, Chris Pine, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Diego Luna, Taika Waititi, and Zazie Beetz. Rob Reiner, the director of The Princess Bride, was involved as the grandfather, replacing the late Peter Falk. Despite his involvement in the streaming series, Reiner has also shown no interest in a sequel.
In 2014, Cary Elwes released As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making Of The Princess Bride, the complete collection of stories from the cast and crew featuring never-before-seen photographs. At the time, the Stranger Things star said the book could be considered a sequel since he brought together the entire cast to share their memories from the set.
It seems disappointing and oddly fitting that a strange fan remake on a defunct streaming service is the closest we’ll get to The Princess Bride 2. As Cary Elwes said, the first film is near-perfect, and with every other movie getting remade today, leaving a film to stand on its own makes it truly unique.
