Bill and Ted Face the Music’s Ed Solomon: “Party On” Predates Covid-19, and Is About the Movie’s Relationship to Fans

Earlier today, Bill and Ted Face the Music co-writer Ed Solomon took to social media to announce “Party On With Bill and Ted,” an opportunity for fans to be a part of the movie by rocking out to the Wyld Stallyns and sharing their love of Bill and Ted with the rest of the world. Solomon, who wrote 1989’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure as well as its 1991 follow-up Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, has been living with questions about an untitled third Bill and Ted movie for almost thirty years, before production finally got off the ground last year.

Now in post-production, Bill and Ted Face the Music will apparently incorporate short (under 30-second) videos from fans into some aspect of the film, although it isn’t quite clear what. The parallel we drew was to Rocky Balboa, where the film ended with a montage of fan videos that played over the credits, with dozens of Rocky enthusiasts copying his famous run up the museum steps from the original 1976 film, but Solomon said we can’t take anything for granted.

“Well, we didn’t ever say where this will appear, story-wise,” Solomon told ComicBook.com. “But to me it’s both for the fans AND for the movie. I can’t tell you how grateful we are to have the fans we have. It’s been the most ennobling thing about the whole process. You put something into the world and you don’t know what’s going to happen with it, how it will be received — if it will be received at ALL. But it is literally BECAUSE of the fans that we got this third movie made. And so we had them in mind from the beginning. We made this movie for two sets of people: ourselves, and the Bill and Ted fans. So in a way, yes, it’s for them, but it’s for us as well. I love the interconnectedness.”

That was the motivation behind including the idea that drives “Party On With Bill and Ted” in every recent iteration of the script. While a story for Bill & Ted 3 has existed for a number of years in some form or another, the script obviously has had to change as society changed and the cast aged, since there was never any idea of doing a Bill and Ted sequel without stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.

“This was always in the script — at least, for the past couple years,” Solomon explained. “We always knew that it was going to be something very meaningful for the movie, and the movie’s relationship with the fans – who are the reason this thing was able to get made in the first place.”

This isn’t exactly like Guardians of the Galaxy, where James Gunn built certain pop songs into the screenplay and then played them on set to get a sense for mood and pacing. While music is obviously a huge part of Bill and Ted Face the Music, Solomon says that he and co-writer Chris Matheson left all of that up to the professionals.

“Chris and I aren’t picking any of the music. we have a great music supervisor – Jonathan Leahy – who is doing that,” Solomon said. “He and his colleague, Ashley Waldron, are doing a great job assembling and putting together all the music.”

Since the whole premise of the film is that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written a song that will change the world, and they haven’t…well, that’s a tall order for the folks in charge of music as well as the screenwriters who have to figure out how that all works. Solomon told us that was a challenge they were very aware of when they started working on the film.

“It’s in the press about the movie that they have to write a song that unites the world,” Solomon said. “And that sure is a terrible thing to set yourself up for as a writer. So we needed to find a work around so that we’re not setting ourselves up for an impossible task.”

In Bill & Ted Face the Music, he stakes are higher than ever for the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it. Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters, a new batch of historical figures, and a few music legends – to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.

The film stars Reeves and Winter, along with Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi), Kristen Schaal, Anthony Carrigan, Erinn Hayes, Jayma Mays, Jillian Bell, Holland Taylor, Beck Bennett, and returning co-stars William Sadler, Hal Landon Jr., and Amy Stoch.

Barring any Covid-19-related changes to the schedule, Bill and Ted Face the Music is expected in theaters this August.