Fans of William Goldman's 1973 novel The Princess Bride have been waiting for the sequel, Buttercup's Baby, but The Princess Bride's follow-up has been the subject of much speculation, and the rumored book may not even exist. Goldman's original novel was a fictional meta-narrative, and Buttercup's Baby may be just a continuation of the concept developed in the original book.
The Princess Bride's 1987 film adaptation was directed by Rob Reiner and famously starred Cary Elwes and Robin Wright with Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, and Andre the Giant giving memorable supporting performances. The story is about farmhand-turned-pirate Westley who goes on an adventure to rescue his true love, Buttercup, both from her kidnappers and her reluctant marriage to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). The Princess Bride was not a box-office hit at the time of its release, but it garnered a cult following for its balance of swashbuckling adventure and lighthearted comedy, its twist on traditional stories of romance, and its many quotable lines. Fans can revisit Buttercup and Westley's journey on Disney+.
William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride is presented as Goldman's commentary of Simon "S." Morgenstern's classic fairy tale, except Morgenstern is a fictional author who resides in the fictional country of Florin, the same place Buttercup and Westley are from. The film adaptation has some differences, naturally, but both use the framing device of a grandfather (Peter Falk) reading the book to his sick grandson (Fred Savage). In the novel, however, Goldman himself is retelling the story of The Princess Bride, and Goldman presents the book as the work of someone else that he simply modified and shortened to be more readable and entertaining.
In his commentary of Morgenstern's fairy tale, Goldman gives a fictional account of one new piece of narrative he wrote as a follow-up to Morgenstern's tale. This new story is called "the reunion scene," which allegedly tells the story of Buttercup and Westley's reunion after the ending of the novel, a moment that happens in the film but not the novel. However, Goldman states that his reunion scene was rejected by his publisher and encourages his readers to write to the publisher to request a copy of the reunion scene. Readers who actually did write to Random House publishers (then known as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) got a response detailing a fictitious tale of legal issues with Morgenstern's estate and his lawyer, Kermit Shog, that prevented them from releasing the reunion scene.
In the epilogue of later editions of the novel, a sequel titled Buttercup's Baby was mentioned, but Goldman states that Morgenstern's fictional lawyer is preventing its publication. Some of these later editions do reprint a "sample" chapter of Buttercup's Baby, giving readers a glimpse of this fabled sequel. The sample chapter revolves around the kidnapping of Waverly, Buttercup and Westley's infant daughter, by a "skinless-faced madman." The 30th Anniversary Edition promised to have a full version of Buttercup's Baby before the book's 50th Anniversary, which is coming up in 2023. However, that seems unlikely given William Goldman's death in 2018.
Fans may never know the full story behind Buttercup's Baby or if Goldman was ever actually writing it, but they will always have the timeless, cinematic experience that is The Princess Bride to enjoy as often as they want.