Ben Whishaw, universally known as the voice of Paddington, has some disappointing news for fans waiting anxiously for Paddington 3. During an exclusive interview with Collider’s own Steven Weintraub with Whishaw and Bad Behaviour‘s director Alice Englert, during Sundance, the star revealed that he’s yet to see the script of the threequel, and there’s no set window to start production.

In 2014, director Paul King gifted the world with Paddington, a live-action adaptation of the classic stories by author Michael Bond. The movie is a perfect feel-good story to be enjoyed by the entire family. Still, it wasn’t until 2017’s Paddington 2 that King perfected his marmalade formula and delivered what’s almost unanimously recognized as the pinnacle of cinema. The love for Paddington 2 is so widespread that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has an entire montage to crown the sequel as one of the three best movies in history. Paddington is an international sensation, so where is the threequel that we were promised? According to Whishaw, nowhere near us. In the star’s words:

“I haven’t read this script and I don’t even know when we’re due to shoot it. I don’t know. I thought it would be happening by now, but I don’t know. It’s gone silent in the way that sometimes these things do. Maybe that just means they’re still working on it, or maybe it means it’s not happening, or you just don’t know.”

No Paddington 3? That will cause a prison riot! The news is particularly disappointing because, last June, we learned King was stepping down from the franchise, and director Dougal Wilson would helm the threequel. Paddington 3 even got an official title, Paddington in Peru, together with the promise our favorite bear would return to his home in South America. Those were clear signs that the project was moving forward, but it seems like things are still stuck in development hell.

Alice Englert Never Saw Paddington

While we digested the bitter news Whishaw gave us, we’ve also learned director Englert has never seen a Paddington movie. Yes, this is shocking news because, apparently, they let people make movies without having witnessed the best thing cinema created. And it’s all the more disturbing when we notice that Englert is friends with Whishaw in real life.

Commenting on her short experience with the iconic bear, Englert said, “I do remember you [Whishaw] coming home from ADR, a whole day of ADR where you had just been making Paddington Bear growling noises.” Whishaw confirms sometimes he didn’t do anything on set but grow. In his words, “Some days I just go in and do like about 30 or 40 different growls [growls] for like the whole day. You get the list of things you have to do, and it goes, ‘tiny growl,’ ‘small beary growl,’ ‘small, disappointed growl.’”

Knowing she would receive a hard stare from Whishaw if she remained oblivious to Paddigton’s charms, Englert also used our interview to make a sacred promise to watch the two movies finally. As she puts it:

“I’m obsessed with that. All right, well, no more Sundance films. I’m going home, I’m going to watch Paddington. I do actually hear it’s great. Our producer was saying she watched it the other day in a moment of deep stress and it made everything better.”

Unfortunately, there’s no release window for Paddington in Peru.

via Collider