You’ll get to see Bill and Ted Face the Music yourself in September when the movie is released in theaters and on digital. However, at the movie’s Comic-Con@Home panel, moderator Kevin Smith shared a truly exciting tease about something that happens in the movie.
While discussing viewing the film for the first time, Smith let slip that George Carlin, who played Rufus in the first two movies, does appear in Face the Music. That is kind of a surprise, given that the comedian passed away in 2008. Rufus is in the final cut, though.
As for how that’s possible, chances are this has been done using archived and possibly unused footage from the first two films. It most likely won’t be a major role in the film, though knowing Face the Music is going to pay tribute to a beloved character–and actor, for that matter–is reassuring.
The panel also included a look back on the years-long journey to get a third Bill and Ted movie made, going as far into the past as Keanu Reeves’ and Alex Winter’s auditions for the initial film. “Keanu and I became friends, to some degree, on the audition process,” Winter said. “We kept getting brought back.”
The duo noted that everyone making the film was young and sort of figuring out how to make the movie as they went, not realizing it would evolve to the point where they became a pop culture phenomenon. Reeves remembered the first time he noticed people screaming “Be excellent!” at him on the street and how cool the experience was.
Now, in 2020, a new film finds Bill and Ted all grown up, with kids and lives of their own. Those kids are played by Samara Weaving (Thea Preston) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Billie Logan), both of whom admitted they’d never seen the original movies before auditioning. In their defense, though, they were both born after the movies came out.
Naturally, they checked out the movies before filming to completely understand the characters, and Lundy-Paine also admitted they watched Winter and Reeves constantly to pick up traits to add to their characters.
Bill and Ted Face the Music arrives on September 1. You’ll be able to watch it either in theaters or on digital release.
