Co-creator of the Bill & Ted movies, Ed Solomon, just revealed why the latest movie, third entry in the franchise 29 years later.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures introduced the world to the titular characters, two teenaged slackers. Played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the movie followed the young boys as they traveled through time for the sake of a high school history presentation. The sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, raised the stakes as Bill & Ted found themselves dealing with Death in the afterlife. At the end of Bogus Journey, Bill & Ted had young sons of their own named after them. However, the next movie, Bill & Ted Face the Music, changes this detail and the lead characters now have daughters by the names of Billie and Thea.
In an interview with Cinema Blend, Solomon explains the reason why Face the Music retconned the ending of Bogus Journey. He expresses that the original decision to make the children boys was a reflection of Solomon and co-creator Chris Matheson being "barely post-adolescent boys" themselves. Solomon its that the idea didn't work, coming off as "boring," "derivative," and "stale." Solomon's statement can be found below.
"I’d like to pretend they were always girls. They weren’t always girls. We assumed, because we were adolescent boys when we wrote Excellent Adventure (and we were barely post-adolescent boys when we wrote Bogus Journey), of course, we assumed they were going to be boys. They happened to be played by girls, interestingly. Candace and Lauren Mead played those characters. But regardless, look, we were immature adolescent males. And so we wrote an immature adolescent male fantasy. Thirty years . Life changes. The world changes. We change, we grow up, we get married, we have children, we have sons, we have daughters. And of course, our culture evolves, as it should.
But we still, in 2009 and 2010, we thought, ‘Let’s write them as boys.’ Because that’s what we figured! Young Will and Theo. And I cannot tell you how boring they work. Oh God, derivative. Stale. We tried to give them like Bill and Ted type voices. Just unbelievably like rehashed crap. We hated it. We tried to make them into cool guys. That was stupid. And then when we finally had the idea a few years later, ‘Wait, why are we beating our heads against the wall with this? What if they had daughters? What if it’s Billie and Thea?’ It just opened it up completely. So that's a much better idea. And it helped us with something we were trying and to do anyway with the movie, which is -- the first two movies, they are male-centric. They were written by boys who knew no better. And so this also gave us a chance to go, ‘Let’s just widen it, man. Let’s like, let there be more of a female presence and just make it more inclusive.’"
A major detail change like that is certainly understandable, especially given that Bill & Ted's lives are drastically changed from when we last saw them. Face the Music shows the pair in their new roles of domesticated husbands and fathers. However, they haven't entirely lost their essence as they continue to play music together and even insist on going to couples therapy together with their wives. Bill & Ted's lives are interrupted when they learn that they need to create a song that will save the world. With the help of their daughters, who take after their fathers, Bill & Ted travel through time to get musical help, meeting old friends, various musicians, and alternate versions of themselves.
Judging from the trailer, Bill and Ted's daughters, played by Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving, appear to fit into the film seamlessly. It looks as though as they go after their fathers, they experience time travel adventures almost identical to their fathers and possibly even meet Bill & Ted's old acquaintance Death. Overall, Bill & Ted Face the Music looks like a cool, nostalgic film with a fun ing cast and an even more fun soundtrack. The movie will debut in select theaters and through video on demand August 28.
Source: Cinema Blend
