Updated 8 July: Production on the hotly anticipated film Paddington 3 will start in the first half of next year, Studiocanal has confirmed.

The production company, which also worked on the first two films, confirmed the news as part of an event at Cannes film festival this week.

While the director, cast and filming location are currently being kept under wraps, we do know that the story is by the same people who worked on the first two films (Paul King, Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton), and that the screenplay will be written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont. King will also executive produce.

The announcement came as part of a presentation by Studiocanal at the film festival, in which it also confirmed that The Flight Attendant star Kaley Cuoco is set to star and produce in an upcoming feature film called Role Play. 

As reported 18 February: Just when we were starting to fear we might have seen the last of everyone’s favourite marmalade-loving bear, a third installment of the Paddington films has been confirmed, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.  

After everything that’s happened over the last year, it’s safe to say we’re all in need of some light relief – and we couldn’t think of any better way to do that than cosying up with this most wholesome of franchises.

We had our hopes up after Hugh Bonneville revealed a third film was “somewhere on the horizon” during an appearance on Zoe Ball’s radio show last week. And now, Studiocanal has confirmed the news. 

“We can confirm Studiocanal is working very hard on film 3 with the utmost craft and care — as with film 1 and 2,” a representative for the company confirmed in a statement to Variety.  

Although that’s *literally* all we have confirmed at the moment (besides the fact that the film’s original director Paul King won’t be returning in his original role, but will retain his position as executive producer), we can hazard some guesses as to what you can expect from the new film.

As Hugh Bonneville was the first to tease the news, it’s expected he’ll make a return as Henry Brown alongside Ben Whishaw, who has voiced Paddington throughout the films and in the new television series, too. 

As for who else is going to return for the film, it seems Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant could be keen to reprise their roles as Paddington’s arch enemies – perhaps teaming up to take down the bear once and for all.

Speaking in an interview with Digital Spy last year, Grant – who recently starred alongside Kidman in the hit Sky drama The Undoing – joked about returning to the film alongside his co-star. 

“We should do that. And then a mummy gets murdered, and I’m the suspect. We should mix up the two things,” he said, referring to his character’s plight in The Undoing. 

Speaking in a similar vein during an interview with Closer magazine, Kidman said she thought it would be fun to see the film’s most hated characters unite.  

“We’re gonna have our own film as the two villains,” she laughed. “That would be kind of entertaining. We’d get the bear. The bear wouldn’t survive!”

Kidman added: “That would not do well … the film would flop.” 

Of course, all this talk of Kidman and Grant reuniting is just in jest at the moment, so we’ll have to wait and see what the film’s creators decided to do with the new film.

We’ll update this page with the latest news as we get it, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for updates. 

Images: Studiocanal