As a child of the early 2000s, Ice Princess was a formative film for me. The 2005 Disney movie about a girl getting into the world of figure skating was inspiring and incredibly entertaining. It also introduced me to Hayden Panettiere and Michelle Trachtenberg. It’s hard to believe both actresses have passed away, and now, right after the death of the Heroes star, the director of Ice Princess has opened up about working with her and Trachtenberg.
Hayden Panettiere died on August 16, 2026, and immediately after the news broke and tributes for the Nashville actress started pouring in, Ice Princess began trending. It’s hard to comprehend that both the film’s stars have now passed away, and Variety spoke to the movie’s director, Tim Fywell, about working with them in the wake of their deaths:
It was really upsetting to hear yesterday of the death of Hayden Panettiere at the age of 36. I remember a brave, sparky, dedicated young actress who lit up the set in rehearsals and then the screen with her vibrant talent. Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden’s co-star in the movie, and she were an amazing pair.
It is really upsetting to realize that we’ve lost both these actresses in such a short span of time. Panettiere passed away about a year and a half after Michelle Trachtenberg, who died in February 2025. The actresses were 36 and 39, respectively, at the time of their deaths.
As Fywell said, they really were an amazing pair, and Ice Princess is a big reason why I’m a fan of both of them. Of course, Panettiere starred in one of the best sports movies, Remember the Titans, played a part in the Scream movies, and starred in major TV shows like Nashville and Heroes. However, Ice Princess is one of the projects that meant the most to me. Clearly, it meant a lot to many fans of the actresses too, seeing as it’s started trending with posts like this one on X:
Rest in peace to these ice princesses 💔 Forever Michelle and Hayden 🤍🕊️
Ice Princess follows Trachtenberg’s Casey Carlyle as she dives into the world of figure skating, even though she is on track to go to college at Harvard. As she starts competing on the ice, she meets Panettiere’s Gen, and while their relationship starts out rocky, they eventually turn into good friends. As Fywell reflected on the women who led this movie, he also noted how much he adored working with them:
In what was often a tough and technically complicated shoot, and my first Hollywood movie, they were delightful to work with and great to have around. I remember them both with huge affection, how they were 20 odd years ago, at that relatively uncomplicated time of their lives, two shining talents, gone far too soon.
Tributes for both Trachtenberg and Panettiere poured in at the time of their deaths, expressing a similar feeling. It’s hard to fathom that they both died in their 30s and within the last year and a half; they really are both “gone far too soon.”
Thankfully, we will always have their work to look back on, and that includes Ice Princess. So, if you’d like to pay tribute to the late actresses by watching some of their work, you can stream the 2005 figure skating movie with a Disney+ subscription.
