Here’s some truly excellent news: Production on Bill & Ted 3 is officially underway, with a release date set for August 21st, 2020.
Officially titled Bill & Ted 3: Face the Music, the film will mark the third installment in the franchise following 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. The film’s original writers, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, returned to pen the script for Face the Music.
Also returning are original stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who were personally involved in getting the film made. (It was a multi-year endeavor!) To mark the launch of production, they’ve released a brief video, filmed in front of the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. “[The film] is all because of you guys. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude, and we wanted to say thank you. And be excellent,” Winters says.
(Read: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Has Become Its Own Time Capsule)
“They’re supposed to save the world. But when we see them, they haven’t saved the world, and they’re married and have kids. And they’re playing to nobody,” Reeves previously said of the film’s plot. “But they have to write the song [to save the world]… and face the music!”
A previously released synopsis goes on to add:
“They’ve written thousands of tunes, but they have yet to write a good one, much less the greatest song ever written. With the fabric of time and space tearing around them, a visitor from the future warns our heroes that only their song can save life as we know it. Out of luck and fresh out of inspiration, Bill and Ted set out on a time travel adventure to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe as we know it. Together with the aid of their daughters, a new crop of historical figures, and some sympathetic music legends, they find much, much more than just a song.”
Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Red 2, Fun with Dick and Jane) will direct the film. In addition to Reeves and Winter reprising their roles as “Ted” Theodore Logan and “Bill” S. Preston Esq., respectively, Solomon has promised some “delicious cameos.” Perhaps, notably, will be an appearance from George Carlin’s Rufus, despite the actor/comedian’s passing in 2008. “There’s actually a scene – one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie – where middle-aged, 50-year-old Bill and Ted return to the Circle K and see their teen selves and Rufus, and actually interact with their teenage selves, played by their actual teenage selves,” Soloman previously revealed.
