Priscilla, Queen of the Desert sequel confirmed

Thirty years after The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, swept the box office and award shows, the movie’s director has confirmed that a sequel is in the works.

The director of the Australian queer classic, Stephan Elliott, told Deadline that a sequel is definitely happening, and stars Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving are back “on board.”

Related:

How Australia fell in love with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The real-life impact of the movie is truly amazing. By getting out of the gayborhood, that little group of performers really did manage to change the world.

The trio star as three drag performers who travel the Australian outback in a giant old bus to perform in a casino managed by one character’s estranged wife. The bus is nicknamed Priscilla.

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Giant headpieces, bejeweled gowns, and the windswept desert have roles almost as big as the performers as the three perform ABBA and disco songs throughout the film.

While two of the characters are drag queens, the third is a transgender woman, and the heartwarming treatment she gets in the movie is one of the film’s highlights.

He has previously said that sequels have been pitched repeatedly, but none of the potential storylines have interested him or seemed appropriate to the larger-than-life characters.

”I just was not sure, I just didn’t want to repeat myself,” he said. “I thought, what am I going to do? Stick them on a cruise ship, stick them on a train? You name it, over the years, I’ve been pitched Priscilla 2 in spades.”

“I’m not repeating myself,” he added. “We’ll start the new film in Australia, but by God, we’re going on one helluva journey.”

“The original cast is on board, I’ve got a script that everybody likes, we’re still working out deals. … It’s happening.”

“The bottom line is that I’ve just had everybody to the table and we’re hammering out the deal now just so everybody’s happy,” Elliott says.

While the sequel will, by necessity, include new characters, it will still include “old disco classics, but we’ll be moving into contemporary as well.”

The movie was turned into a Broadway musical and other spinoff live shows, and he noted that Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is particularly popular with the audience when it’s included.

“We’ve got to move with the times,” he pointed out.