Here's What You Didn't Know About The Princess Switch Movies

When Netflix dropped the third installment of "The Princess Switch" series, it marked the fourth year in a row that Vanessa Hudgens was the star of a Netflix Christmas flick, if you include her other holiday movie, 2019's "The Knight Before Christmas." Fans can't get enough of Hudgens' key role in the so-called "Netflix Christmas Universe," and thankfully didn't have to wait too long for more feel-good holiday fun and crazy character switcheroos in 2021's "The Princess Switch: Romancing the Star."

"I love being in everyone's home for the holidays and knowing that it's bringing families together," the singer-actor gushed to ET at the time. "It just fills my soul with joy." Long may the tradition of Vanessa Hudgens' Christmas movies continue! But let's quickly recap: In the original "Princess Switch" film, Hudgens played not one but two characters, Chicago baker Stacy De Novo and Montenaro royalty Lady Margaret Delacourt, who — you guessed it — swap places with each other. In the 2020 sequel, "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," Margaret's scheming cousin, Fiona, enters the mix. With "The Princess Switch: Romancing the Star," Hudgens is back playing all three lookalike characters who just can't help but switch identities for a third time.

Clearly, there's a lot happening on the screen in each of these quirky holiday films, but there's a lot happening behind the scenes, too. Keep reading for all the juicy details and secrets you didn't know about "The Princess Switch" movies.

If you've seen "The Parent Trap" remake, you might recognize a few similarities between the 1998 classic and the original flick in "The Princess Switch" trilogy. Of course, Vanessa Hudgens' film has a few twists — it's about royalty, set at Christmas, and the main characters are older than the 11-year-old twins Lindsay Lohan portrayed. However, when you watch Stacy and Margaret's transformation montage, then the horse riding scene, and even note the similarities between Mrs. Donatelli (Suanne Braun) and Chessy (Lisa Ann Walter), who are both in on the switch, then the link between the two movies is undeniable.

"The Princess Switch" director Mike Rohl acknowledged these parallels to "The Parent Trap," as well as some elements that come from "The Princess Diaries," saying the 2018 Netflix movie was absolutely based on its predecessors. "All we're really doing is doing a new arrangement of somebody else's orchestration, and putting our own color to it," he explained to Vanity Fair.

This premise boded well for Hudgens, who has said she was a huge fan of "The Parent Trap" concept growing up. "I've seen that movie so many times. My sister and I used to act out the scenes from the movie," she told People. "It's still such a go-to of mine. If I still love it, hopefully, this will be a classic for my fans and that they'll still watch it."

Vanessa Hudgens makes the perfect princess, so it's difficult to imagine another actor playing the lead characters, Stacy and Margaret, in "The Princess Switch," along with third character of Fiona in the sequels, too. Apparently, "The Princess Switch's" writers and creators, Robin Bernheim Burger and Megan Metzger, couldn't agree with that sentiment more. In fact, the duo revealed that they only had Hudgens in mind for the lead role. 

"She was our first choice. I mean, she is just perfect for this film," Bernheim Burger explained to The Anglophile Channel in 2018. The writers also admitted that it was the star's "more recent work" that really appealed to them rather than her "High School Musical" days. "We saw her in 'Grease,' which was live on Fox, where she played Rizzo, and she was quite brilliant," Bernheim Burger added. We couldn't agree more!

Thankfully, Hudgens was up for the part and has since gone on to create her own Christmas cinematic universe with "The Princess Switch" sequels, "Switched Again" and "Romancing the Star," as well as her turn in "The Knight Before Christmas."

The "magical man" character (played by Robin Soans) appears multiple times throughout the first film in "The Princess Switch" series. When he's not working in one of his five jobs, he always just seems to be around at the perfect moment to offer the other characters some much-need guidance. However, creating a character like that took a lot of work, and he ended up undergoing several revisions during the writing process. 

"He had a very strange evolution, because originally he was a twin," revealed Megan Metzger, one of "The Princess Switch" creators, to The Anglophile Channel. He was going to be "another sort of switch character like Vanessa's character," Metzger explained. However, as the plot developed, he became more of a singular "magical character."

He first pops up outside Stacy's bakery in Chicago at the beginning of the first movie, but then mysteriously reappears again in Belgravia — and then in Montenaro for the sequels. Although viewers never learn his name or why he has magical powers, director Mike Rohl said that's part of the character's charm. "I think he is a magical being, and his whole purpose was to create the circumstances or guide the circumstances so that these people had to meet each other and to create happiness," Rohl explained to Vanity Fair.

You might have noticed that Stacy's go-to accessory in the first "Princess Switch" film is her hat, which is emblazoned with the name of her hometown. The "Chicago" hat later becomes a pretty important prop in Stacy's switch with Margaret. However, as Vanity Fair noted, it's quite unlikely a person from the Windy City would actually wear that hat everywhere they went, and as it turns out, there's a story behind that hat being chosen.

Director Mike Rohl revealed that the "Chicago" hat was not actually the hat Stacy was supposed to wear. It was going to be a "more specific hat, one promoting a Chicago sports team like the Cubs," he told the outlet. However, the filmmaker added, "For different reasons — production reasons, clearance reasons, and stuff like that — we couldn't use it."

This meant they had to switch to Plan B, which was the "Chicago" hat, Rohl explained, saying that while it is "a little bit obvious," it still works for the film. "You know, she's proud of being from Chicago. She loves Chicago so much, she'll wear that hat anywhere," he said.

While Stacy may have loved Chicago so much that she wears a hat with the name of the city on it, Vanessa Hudgens never actually went there to film "The Princess Switch." The movie was (mostly) entirely shot in Romania. "Even the stuff that was supposed to be Chicago is Romania," revealed Robin Bernheim Burger, per The Anglophile Channel. Except for the "establishing shots of Chicago," everything is in Romania, including Stacy's bakery.

"We shot it in a small city that's never seen anything like this happen in their town before," added director Mike Rohl to Vanity Fair. "It's right up near the Hungarian border, in Transylvania, of all places." This meant they could use a real castle as the setting for Edward's palace in Belgravia, rather than a less impressive set. However, because they were shooting in Europe rather than the Windy City, fans have commented that the Chicago scenes don't seem very realistic, especially since it's meant to be the dead of winter, per Refinery29.

One viewer noted that Stacy's coat would have been far too thin to keep her warm during a Chicago winter, but that probably had more to do with it being summer when the majority of filming was taking place. "It was July in Romania," Sam Palladio (a.k.a. Prince Edward) revealed to Fangirlish. So, it's no wonder the cast didn't want to wear very many layers.

Since the location of the films moved from Belgravia to Montenaro in "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," it only makes sense that production would move locations too, right? Goodbye, sunny Romania; hello, wintery Scotland. This is where production took place for the next two films, with the cast spotted filming in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Hudgens enjoyed this change in location, saying she "immediately fell in love" with Scotland, per Daily Record. "Our locations were so beautiful," the star added. "We were filming in actual castles with the most insane art. I loved every second of it because I love history. The energy there was just so phenomenal."

However, fellow actor Sam Palladio didn't love some of the filming locations as much as his co-star, specifically Margaret's castle. "That location was actually the coldest place I've ever been," he admitted to Fangirlish. Palladio said that unlike the first film, they were filming in December, and since the mansion was made entirely out of marble, it made for some shiveringly cold scenes.

Vanessa Hudgens' mom, Gina Guangco Hudgens, was a regular fixture on "The Princess Switch" set in Romania, according to director Mike Rohl. "She's a sparkly, giggly Filipino lady who's just lovely," he told Vanity Fair.

Because they were filming so far away from home, the cast and crew quickly became "family," Hudgens explained to ClickTheCity in 2020. "We were in a little town and there was one restaurant that we could go to and we would all be together all the time." It was at this restaurant that Guangco Hudgens became "the star of the show," Rohl recalled to Vanity Fair. He also noted that she became something of a mother figure on set, saying, "We ended up calling her Mama G by the very end."

So, when Hudgens and the rest of the cast and crew were shooting in Scotland, Guangco Hudgens — whose Instagram handle is "@mamagh" — flew over to reunite with everyone, too. "She's my #1 fan and I'm hers," Hudgens gushed on Instagram in 2019. Guangco Hudgens was also spotted visiting her famous daughter on the set of the third film — so it appears "Mama G" became something of a good luck charm for the cast and crew.

Vanessa Hudgens has portrayed three characters — Stacy, Margaret, and Fiona — since "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," which was released in 2020. "Playing three characters is something that I never thought I would really be doing," Hudgens, who said the experience was definitely a "challenge," admitted to ScreenRant. What's more, since these three characters keep switching with each other, she added, "It's like six characters, all put together in one of me!"

The actor said later revealed that she even had to put her foot down when it came to more potential switches, as there was apparently talk of a fourth character. "I was like, 'The only way I can do this is if we don't add any more versions of myself, because we're already out here doing the most,'" she told the outlet around the time of "The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star's" release.

Despite the extra work and it taking "way longer to do a normal scene when you're playing three different people," Hudgens noted to PopSugar in 2020 that she's had so much fun playing these characters. The star also loved having the opportunity to explore Fiona's character more in the series' sequels. Noting to ClickTheCity that there are "pieces" of each of the characters that she can "totally relate to," she has found a favorite in Fiona, because she's "very over the top and an absolute drama queen and I am a bit dramatic myself."

You might recognize one of the voices on "The Princess Switch" soundtrack as none other than Sam Palladio, who plays Prince Edward in the Netflix Christmas trilogy. The British-born "Nashville" star performed, wrote, and produced several songs for the first film — including the original Christmas song, "Bring the Snow."

Palladio wrote this tune quite late in the filmmaking process, though. In fact, it was after he'd already seen the first cut of the movie. "Having watched the film, I thought we all put a lot of work in and it became a great little piece," he recalled to Bustle. "I was really pleased with it and really proud of it, and I just thought, 'You know what? This needs an original Christmas song.'" Apparently, everyone agreed, and the producers even brought the song back for the 2020 sequel.

The soundtrack was even "bigger" for "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," according to the film's composer, Alan Lazar. "The director loved music, and he wanted to have a lot of music," Lazar revealed to Popaxiom, explaining how they "upped a notch on the score" by using a full orchestra from Budapest. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lazar wrote all "65 minutes of music" at home and had to coordinate recording it all remotely. Lazar's epic score also includes music specifically for Fiona to set a different tone from the first film.

You might have noticed that the daughter of Nick Sagar's Kevin, Olivia, looked a bit different in "The Princess Switch: Switched Again." Well, that's because there was a secret switch in the sequel. Alexa Adeosun, who played Olivia in the first film, was replaced by Mia Lloyd, who took on the role for the 2020 and 2021 films, per Refinery29.

It seems like an odd choice to replace the actor, since Olivia has a pretty big role in the original film, and not all viewers were happy about it, according to the Independent. However, while it is not exactly clear why Lloyd joined the series, it could be because she's a little older than Adeosun and has a few more acting credits under her belt. Since starring in "The Princess Switch," Adeosun has only had a guest role in "The Athena" in 2019, so it seems she may have stopped acting for the time being. Her Instagram page is also set to private, so we're guessing she's simply enjoying her young life in privacy and off the screen.

Vanessa Hudgens has experienced plenty of great moments on film sets over the years, but one scene in "The Princess Switch: Switched Again" stands out as a particular favorite for the actor. While shooting what became her favorite scene — Margaret's coronation — in a "beautiful chapel in Glasgow," Hudgens told PopSugar how she experienced a perfect "real-life fairy tale moment."

"I remember standing in the center of this church and looking around and looking down at what I'm wearing and taking in this situation," Hudgens revealed of this experience. The white embroidered coronation gown that she was wearing made the moment even more special, she explained, noting that it had been made for her "from scratch."

Most fans would probably agree that Margaret's coronation is one of the beautiful scenes in the entire franchise, and they're not alone. As Hudgens added, "I was like, 'This is better than a wedding.' It was really special."

Edward and Stacy's love story is anything but conventional. After all, they fall for each other in the space of two days while she's pretending to be someone else. Of course, that little hiccup is quickly figured out and they say "I do" before the first movie is over. Thankfully, their love story doesn't end there, though. 

"We were trying to tell a bit more of a modern relationship ... where it's not just prince and princess live happily ever after," Sam Palladio explained to Fangirlish. "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," then, is all about showing how "they're a modern couple," Palladio noted. To do this, the first sequel plays with the idea of toxic masculinity and flips gender roles. So, instead of Edward being fully enthralled in his princely duties, it's Stacy who's consumed by work, while Edward has time to go shopping with Olivia. "The movie starts and Edward feels a little unsure about the two of them, because she's got so many new commitments. ... So it's quite interesting to see the prince role — the male role — having that uncertainty, and Stacy's just off and winning at life," commented Palladio. 

By the end of this movie, though, there's thankfully no more uneasiness and these fictional royal lovebirds are on equal footing.

In the first "Princess Switch" film, the scene where Stacy bumps into her ex-boyfriend in Chicago was meant to be much longer, according to writers Robin Bernheim Burger and Megan Metzger. Stacy actually goes into the Christmas store to buy an ornament, but that "whole scene" got cut, the writers revealed to The Anglophile Channel.

Not having this scene didn't really make much of a difference to the finished film though — after all, no one really wants to watch someone have an awkward catchup with their ex for too long. However, there was a scene in the "Switched Again" sequel that got cut, which Sam Palladio said was his "favorite scene," per Brief Take.

Palladio revealed that there was actually an additional scene after Kevin (Nick Sagar) and Margaret's flour fight in the kitchen, which involved Edward. They run into each other in the hall afterward and, as Palladio revealed, "Edward [is] like, 'Oh, has there been some sort of explosion in the kitchen?'" Then, the actor added, "Kevin gives him a big old pat on the back and he gets covered in flour and sort of calls for Frank to dust him off." It was, Palladio noted, "a nice little scene." It definitely sounds like it could have been a fun addition to the film.

In 2021, Vanessa Hudgens confirmed a fourth "Princess Switch" movie has not been ruled out, per ET. However, she let on that it's not likely the cast would be back for Christmas 2022, because she "need[s] a break from the amount of work that these movies take."

Not to worry, though, as there's another way fans might see "The Princess Switch" characters sooner, with the cast potentially reprising their roles in a crossover with another Netflix Christmas series, like "A Christmas Prince" or Hudgens' other holiday flick, "The Knight Before Christmas" (a sequel may be in the works). Netflix has already been building up the crossovers, with cameos from King Richard, Queen Amber, and Princess Elleri (pictured above) in "The Princess Switch: Switched Again," not to mention Kevin and Margaret watching "A Christmas Prince" in the original "Princess Switch" film.

Sam Palladio is certainly up for a real crossover, telling Fangirlish, "I think it would be amazing. ... Cross the worlds properly and have us all interact in some crazy movie together." Another way for this to come about? Hudgens stated to ET that she would love to see Stacy and Edward with a baby one day, saying, "I feel like I would just want to skip the bump part and just be me holding babies, because God, I love babies."

It seems anything can happen in the Netflix Holiday Movie Universe, so fans will just have to wait and see where their favorite "Princess Switch" characters crop up next.