The Princess Switch: Switched Again included three cameos from A Christmas Prince that created a gaping plot hole in the Netflix Christmas movie universe. The Princess Switch: Switched Again is the latest entry of Hallmark-style Christmas movies from Netflix. The first Princess Switch movie stars Vanessa Hudgens as both Stacy and Margaret — one a humble baker and the other a royal duchess — who switch places in a true-to-formula movie where each falls in love with a handsome man in the other’s life. In The Princess Switch: Switched Again, Vanessa Hudgens reprises her roles as Stacy and Margaret — and adds a third identical character, Fiona, to the mix.
In a similar tale of mistaken identity, A Christmas Prince — also produced by Netflix — shows a young journalist named Amber (Rose McIver) assuming the role of tutor to a princess after she is mistaken for the real tutor. Amber falls in love with the princess’s older brother, Richard, who becomes king and then proposes to Amber at the end of the film. A Christmas Prince’s two sequels, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby have fairly self-explanatory titles.
The plot hole in the Netflix Christmas cinematic universe was created at the end of The Princess Switch: Switched Again. Duchess Margaret is crowned queen of the fictional country, Montenaro. In attendance are Amber and Richard with baby Elleri from the Christmas Prince series. The problem is that the first Princess Switch movie showed Margaret and Kevin having a romantic holiday evening watching A Christmas Prince on Netflix. The first Princess Switch implied that Amber and Richard were characters played by actors, but the second Princess Switch movie proved that they were real people in the Princess Switch universe. Complicating matters even further, Vanessa Hudgen's other Netflix Christmas movie, The Knight Before Christmas, referenced Aldovia — the fictional country where A Christmas Prince takes place.
There seem to be three prevailing theories explaining the inconsistencies: either Netflix thought fans wouldn’t notice, Netflix just wants to cross-market their films as much as possible, or Netflix is gearing up for a Christmas crossover in the future. Some hopeful fans are wishing for the latter, but the slightly cynical fans believe the two former theories are more likely. Fans of Netflix's Christmas movies took to social media to debate the cameo. Twitter lit up with users posting the receipts and demanding answers from Netflix. Is A Christmas Prince a documentary in the Princess Switch universe? Did Amber and Richard know they were being filmed?
Netflix may never answer these burning questions surrounding Amber and Richard’s cameos in The Princess Switch: Switched Again. But A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch are in a genre of Hallmark-style Christmas films that tend to prioritize quantity over quality — though Netflix’s Christmas movies seem to have a better production budget. The films aren’t meant to be taken with too much seriousness as long as they serve their intended purpose of providing lighthearted and festive entertainment.