Paddington is officially coming back to the big screen as a fourth movie has finally been confirmed. The announcement was made by Studiocanal CEO and Canal+ Group chief content officer Anna Marsh at yesterday’s CinemaCon event in Las Vegas.
Following the release of 2024’s Paddington in Peru, the series has made more than $700 million worldwide at the box office. We don’t know yet when to expect Paddington 4 to arrive, but Marsh teased that “world-renowned comedy writers” have been attached to the new movie.
Paddington in Peru had a change-up behind the scenes with Dougal Wilson taking over as director from Paul King, who had previously co-written and directed the previous two movies. The third movie was written by Jon Foster, Mark Burton and James Lamont, but King and Simon Farnaby – who co-wrote the sequel – worked on the story.
Hopefully whoever has been attached to write Paddington 4 will also be able to call on King and Farnaby’s expertise for the new movie too.
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No other details were revealed about Paddington 4, but it’s fair to assume that Ben Whishaw will return to voice Paddington, along with other cast regulars Hugh Bonneville (even though he thinks he’s “getting on a bit”), Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent.
The one return that we’re really hoping for though will be Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan, following his surprise appearance in Paddington in Peru’s credit scene. In that scene, Phoenix noted that he was being released from prison “shortly” which hopefully leaves him free to reunite with Paddington.
Whether he’ll be a friend or foe remains to be seen though.
StudioCanal
Related: Paddington musical is an absolute triumph that you need to see
If you just can’t wait for Paddington 4, you can rewatch the previous three movies on Sky Cinema and NOW (with a Cinema membership) right now. The first movie is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
The confirmation of the fourth movie comes shortly after Paddington: The Musical won seven Olivier Awards over the weekend, including Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for James Hameed and Arti Shah who bring Paddington to life as the off-stage performer and on-stage performer, respectively.
You can buy tickets for Paddington: The Musical right now from the likes of ATG Tickets, TodayTix and LoveTheatre.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.