Anyone who is anyone during the holiday season watched A Christmas Prince on Netflix when it was released in 2017. Shamelessly romantic and enjoyably cheesy, A Christmas Prince stole everyone’s hearts so forcefully that Netflix created a sequel, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding, which was released last year, in 2018.
Now, it is 2019, and the popularity of A Christmas Prince and its sequel has not gone unnoticed by Netflix: there’s going to be a third movie, turning A Christmas Prince into a trilogy. This new third film is titled A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, the natural next step in such a series, and there’s some reasons we’re really excited for it — and a few we’re not.
Excited: Rose McIver and Ben Lamb Return
Two of the reasons that A Christmas Prince is as enjoyable as it is (and, honestly, two of the reasons many viewers kept watching the series at all) are the two main cast members, Rose McIver and Ben Lamb. Rose McIver plays Amber Moore, who will now be Queen Amber in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby.
Best known for her role on iZombie as Liv Moore (same last name? Interesting…), Rose brings a humor and skill to the role you just love to see in a Netflix movie. Ben Lamb, too, is incredibly warm as the handsome once-Christmas Prince, now-Christmas King, Richard.
Not Excited: Honor Kneafsey Possibly Won’t Return
One of the absolute best parts of both A Christmas Prince and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding was Honor Kneafsey as Prince Richard’s little sister, Princess Emily. The young English actress was wonderful in the role of Princess Emily, and appeared in both the first and the second film, and yet she’s not listed to appear in the new movie on IMDb.
Though there doesn’t seem to be any press addressing her at all, hopefully she’ll make at least a cameo. As it is, we’re not thrilled that she’s not slated to appear.
Excited: A Christmas King
Finally, after all this time (about two years), the Christmas Prince is finally growing into a Christmas King. Prince Richard changes a lot as time goes on, and it makes sense that, eventually, the Christmas Prince would no longer be a prince. That’s not how monarchies work, after all, even in the foreign made-up country of Aldovia.
There was a bit of fumbling for the crown in the last two movies, it’s true, but finally the audience will be able to see Richard settling into his role as the King of Aldovia, getting into a comfortable rhythm and becoming even cooler than he was before.
Not Excited: Losing the Lore
The problem with Richard becoming the Christmas King rather than simply being a mere lowly Christmas Prince, however, is that the titles to the movies are now, frankly, incorrect. This movie is called A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, or A Christmas Prince 3, or even just hey, did you hear there’s going to be another Netflix Christmas Prince movie? by some confused parties.
Not once will this movie be referred to as the movie about the Christmas King. If the story has ended, the story has ended; dragging it out will only land you in hot water quality-wise, like Heroes did once upon a time.
Excited: Romanian Landscapes
As discussed earlier, the country that King Richard and Queen Amber rule over, Aldovia, is a fictional nation. However, the movie still had to be filmed somewhere, and director John Schultz (who also directed A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding) decided to return to Romania to get the shots he needed.
Alex Zamm, who directed A Christmas Prince (as well as My Date with the President's Daughter), set a precedent of using Romania when Aldovia was needed, specifically using the Peleş Castle for principal photography. The second movie, too, was filmed in Romania, and now A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby will also show the audience some breathtaking landscapes from Bucharest, Romania.
Not Excited: No Idea What’s Coming
To be quite frank, there’s… not a lot of marketing going on for A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby. Despite the popularity of the first two movies, especially the first one, Netflix really doesn’t seem to be pushing the advertisements for this third film.
There have been minimal ads on Instagram, even, as well as Facebook or Twitter, where Netflix tends to be quite active. Perhaps press will pick up the closer we get to the movie’s release date of December 5th, 2019, but, as of right now, there’s not even a trailer.
Excited: No Idea What’s Coming
Honestly, there are pros and cons to having no idea what’s coming! Though it’s frustrating to have virtually no idea what’s coming, it can be sort of exciting, too. The last two movies have gone off the rails in unexpected ways, with random family members trying to snatch the crown and an entire secret adoption plot, so this movie will probably have quite similar twists and turns.
Netflix has not yet made a comment on whether there will be a fourth installment in the A Christmas Prince series, so this could even be a very interesting conclusion.
Not Excited: Far-Fetched Plot
The one thing audiences have received already in regards to the plot of A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby is a summary, straight from the mouths of Netflix themselves: “It’s Christmastime in Aldovia—and a royal baby is on the way! Amber and Richard host royals from a faraway kingdom to renew an ancient truce, but when the priceless 600-year-old-treaty disappears, peace is put in jeopardy and an ancient curse threatens their family!”
This is… far-fetched, to say the least, even as the previous two movies have gone. These stories are getting wilder and wilder and, soon, we won’t be grounded in reality anymore!
Excited: Here to Have Fun
Actually, who wants to be grounded in reality? Reality’s often miserable lately, and life can be really hard. What’s wrong with enjoying a good far-fetched plot now and then? So what, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby involves faraway kingdoms, ancient truces, precious treaties, and literally actual curses, big whoop!
The audience that will be watching A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby have probably already seen the first two movies in the series, and they know what they’re in for. Nobody is expecting this movie to be The Godfather; audiences just want to watch a lighthearted Christmas movie. And Royal Baby will surely deliver that.
Not Excited: Waiting Way Too Long
As we talked about earlier, the release date for The Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby isn’t for a while yet. In fact, it’s coming out December 5th, 2019, which is a Thursday.
It’s a little frustrating that the movie won’t be out for the entire holiday season, which most consider to begin on Black Friday (the day after U.S. Thanksgiving), but Netflix won’t drop the movie right away. Those of you who want to start your Christmas season early, you’re just going to have to wait.