Guy Pearce has confirmed that “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 2” will begin shooting in 2027 and reach theaters in 2028, giving fans of the 1994 cult classic their clearest timeline yet for a sequel that has been in development since 2024.
Pearce, who played drag queen Adam Whitely in the original film, shared the update on the red carpet for his new movie “The Dog Stars,” while speaking to Good Morning America. “Well, the sequel, which is going to be—what are we now, ’26?” he said. “We’ll probably shoot it ’27, it’ll come out ’28.” Writer-director Stephan Elliott is returning to helm the follow-up, with Pearce and Hugo Weaving both set to reprise their roles as drag performers who cross the Australian outback in a converted tour bus.
The sequel carries added weight following the death of Terence Stamp, who played Bernadette in the original and died last August at 87. Elliott had already begun what he called “pre-shooting” Stamp’s scenes before the actor’s health declined, using a nine-camera setup to capture his performance across multiple sessions. Stamp insisted on filming the role himself rather than relying on a digital double, telling Elliott he wanted to “put the character down” on his own terms. Elliott has said Stamp specifically rejected the idea of an AI-generated recreation once the technology became a talking point in the industry, wanting no part of a synthetic version of Bernadette.
Elliott has described the new film as a story about aging rather than a retread of the original’s fish-out-of-water premise, and has said production will begin in Australia. Weaving has other projects lined up in the meantime, including the miniseries “The Great White,” while Pearce currently has four films in various stages of production.
The 1994 original, which followed three performers driving a bus named Priscilla across the desert to a gig in Alice Springs, built a devoted following over three decades and remains available to stream on Prime Video. With Stamp’s scenes already in the can, the sequel now rests on Elliott and his surviving cast finishing a story that began production only after saying goodbye to one of its stars.
