The announcement that new Bill and Ted movie was on the way had fans of the original films playing air guitar all over the place. Almost 30 years after the the last time we saw Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan, the pair will return next year in Bill and Ted Face the Music. Not only are fans of the original films looking forward to this, but so are the people actually making the movie happen.
Actor Anthony Carrigan was recently announced to have joined the cast of Bill and ted Face the Music in the role of the movie's villain. He tweeted out his excitement to co-screenwriter Ed Solomon, who, alongside writing partner Chris Matheson, has been responsible for all three Bill and Ted films. Solomon responded to Carrigan with excitement of his own, and then followed it up with a bit of air guitar, in an image that includes Bill and Ted themselves, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, trapped in the phone booth, in an image reminiscent of the original movie poster for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Fans can certainly relate to the joy on Ed Solomon's face as he grins from ear to ear while leaping in the air and jamming to his air guitar. It's almost surreal that Bill and Ted Face the Music is actually happening. It's one of those movies, like so many sequels, that has been talked about for decades. Fans certainly wanted it, and even the creators had talked about being interested in making it, but nothing substantial ever seemed to happen with it and I, and likely many others, all just assumed it was a project that would never actually happen.
And yet, it's real. The movie has a title, and a script, and a release date. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are officially on board and new cast is being added. The movie will be here in just over a year and that's incredible.
The story of Bill and Ted Face the Music, as far as we know it, is that the film will see the titular characters having grown older, started families, and also, having failed to live up to the world changing expectations that they were told they would achieve. It's a premise that only works if you wait 30 years to make the end of a trilogy, and it feels like the absolutely perfect movie to be coming out now.
How the villain being played by Anthony Carrigan will fit into all this is unknown, but one certainly gets the impression that the real adversary here will be time and expectation. Bill and Ted may be idiots, but the movies are anything but stupid.
Bill and Ted Face the Music will be in theaters August 21 2020.
