Warning: This story contains a spoiler from the Princess Switch sequel.
A familiar face shows up in The Princess Switch: Switched Again — and no, it’s not Vanessa Hudgens, again, even though she is playing three roles in the sequel. Instead, we're talking about Netflix Original Christmas movie worlds colliding as Christmas Prince's Queen Amber (Rose McIver) makes an appearance towards the end of the Switch sequel. And while obviously this is the most exciting Christmas thing in the world (especially considering this is the first year in three years without a Christmas Prince movie), it also brings up the question that plagues any nascent movie universe: how exactly does the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe (or the NCCU, I assume) work?
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No offense to Hudgens, but A Christmas Prince is the Netflix holiday movie; the flick started this whole holiday world back in 2017. The first movie tells the story of ordinary blogger Amber and her whirlwind romance with Prince Richard of Aldovia (Ben Lamb), setting wildly unrealistic romantic examples for bloggers in the process. One thing leads to another, and suddenly they’re three movies deep, uncovering anti-monarchist conspiracies, fixing a failing economic system, and working to prevent a curse that may or may not befall their royal baby.
Theirs is such a good Christmas story, in fact, that we saw Margaret (pretending to be Stacy) watching A Christmas Prince in The Princess Switch, which, back then, just made her more relatable to those of us spending our days also watching cheesy Netflix holiday fare. The plot thickened when, in the third Christmas Prince movie, A Royal Baby, it’s revealed that everyone in Aldovia is aware of Belgravia, where The Princess Switch takes place. That opened up a few questions — namely, is A Christmas Prince a documentary in this movie world? And was Hudgens' vaguely European royal somehow unaware of Amber's vaguely European love story until she watched A Christmas Prince on Netflix? Or was she aware of Amber's story and just moved by Netflix's presentation? Are the names of all these countries the only shared reality between these movies? Does A Christmas Prince take place in some fantasy version of what Hudgens perceives as the "real" Aldovia? It was all very disorienting and if it's melting your brain, just wait —there's more, thanks to the second Princess Switch movie.
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Lo and behold in the final scene of Switched Again, Queen Amber herself shows up in Margaret's home country, Montanaro. At Margaret's coronation, a quick shot confirms that Queen Amber, Prince Richard, and their royal baby are in attendance as Margaret ascends to the throne. Clearly this is a case of royalty inviting other royalty to major events, but now it also confirms that both A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch take place in the same Christmas movie universe. On the (fictional) map, Aldovia, Belgravia, and Montanaro appear to be neighboring countries — or at least in the same general area of the European continent.
While Margaret and Amber don’t interact aside from a kind nod from Amber, it can only be assumed that they at least know of one another. (In my headcanon, however, they're good friends who've had at least a few Princess Diaries 2-style royal sleepovers in the past.) And now that this universe is officially confirmed, and the travel visas have been issued, the possibilities are endless. I, for one, hope the next time we see Margaret, Stacy, and Amber that they've formed a royal dream team, joining forces to save Christmas once and for all from some vague political doom, in the most epic Christmas crossover ever. Avengers, who?