It's getting dark at 4pm still, it's hitting minus temperatures on the regular, it's £70 to boil a pot of pasta and guess what? It's all about to get more depressing because any momentum on Paddington 3 seems to have halted.
It's been over five years since Paddington 2 was released and changed the course of history forever. Hyperbole, maybe, but it does still have a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so that's saying something. We last left our favourite marmalade munching mammal back with the Brown family after thwarting the villainous plot of Hugh Grant's washed-up actor, Phoenix Buchanon.
Considering both Paddington films have been such a critical and commercial success, it was only natural that a third film was greenlit almost immediately. But as time has ticked on and directors have changed over, it now looks like a future with more Paddington Brown might be falling out of grasp.
Here's everything we know about Paddington 3.
When is Paddington 3 coming out?
As we said, it's been a while since we last had a Paddington adventure on the big screen, and while there has been a pesky pandemic to contend with delaying so many greenlit films, we're now starting to get itchy fingers about when we'll be able to get our eyes on another one. We're not the only ones, however, as it seems like Ben Whishaw, the honey-toned voice of Paddington himself, is also wanting some news.
In an interview with Collider, he said “I haven't read this script and I don't even know when we're due to shoot it”, adding “I thought it would be happening by now, but I don't know. It's gone silent in the way that sometimes these things do.”
He then uttered a final blow, saying “maybe that just means they're still working on it, or maybe it means it's not happening, or you just don't know". Say it ain't so, Ben, say it ain't so.
If we choose to look at this as a marmalade jar half-full situation and assume Paddington 3 does go ahead, it doesn't look like it will be on our screens any time soon. Production had been rumoured to start at the end of 2022, but if a script hasn't even landed on Ben Whishaw's desk, any release schedule going from that starting point seems moot now. While it had originally been thought to hit our screens in 2024, looking ahead to 2025 might be a safer bet.
What is Paddington 3 about?
Given the official title Paddington in Peru, we can only assume the story was taking our fave bear back to his roots. With the first announcement from StudioCanal officially saying a threequel was underway, it was revealed that filming would take place in the UK and Peru.
The end of Paddington 2 saw Aunt Lucy make her long-awaited trip to London to see Paddington, so maybe this time he's returning the favour.
Who is directing Paddington 3?
The first two Paddington films were masterfully brought to the screen by Paul King and his long-time writing partner Simon Farnaby. Considered the magic touch in making Paddington such a hit, it was a surprise when King announced in 2022 that he would not be in the director's chair for the bear's third outing. It's thought the initial schedule for Paddington 3 didn't line up with King's other big project, the Timothée Chalamet-starring Wonka, which began production last year.
King is still on as an executive producer, however, with Farnaby still putting pen to paper. Taking over behind the camera now is newcomer Dougal Wilson, who hasn't got a feature film behind him but is well-versed in tugging the heartstrings of millions with a handful of John Lewis adverts to his name.
In terms of casting, the usual suspects are due to be back for Paddington 3. Ben Whishaw is still voicing everyone's favourite bear, with Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin and Julie Walters back as the Browns. As always there are a collection of wacky neighbours occupying Windsor Gardens, but it's unclear whether the likes of Peter Capaldi, Ben Miller, Jessica Hynes, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Jim Broadbent will be back.
