The Good, The Bad, And The Bogus Of The New 'Bill & Ted' Trailer
Giving the struggling phone booth industry just the shot in the arm it needs, Bill & Ted Face the Music is set to be released later this summer. The third installment in the popular series finds the middle-aged pair struggling to write the song that will chart a new utopian course for humanity and ... um, guys, in case you didn't notice, we could really use that goddamn song right about now. In addition to a new trailer --
-- we also learned that the film won't drastically delay its release and will hit video-on-demand platforms and "select theatres" on September 1st. Meaning that you can either watch it in the comfort of your own home or in a darkened room with a bunch of germ-riddled strangers. Your call.
But as excited as we are to actually get a much-anticipated new movie on VOD that has nothing whatsoever to do with half-naked musical Trolls, one weird moment in the trailer comes when Bill and Ted are in couples counseling with their wives, the Princesses they rescued/abducted from history. And they look surprisingly young ...
Yeah, it turns out that those aren't the actresses who played the Princesses in either of the two previous movies, but rather Glee's Jayma Mays and Kevin Can Wait's Erinn Hayes. While the roles were also recast between Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, now they're being played by actresses more than a decade shy of their onscreen husbands. Bill's wife is played by a woman fourteen years younger than actor Alex Winter, whereas originally, Princess Johanna was portrayed by an actress four years older than Winter. And she's only thirteen years older than the actress who plays their daughter.
Which sadly reinforces Hollywood's unfortunate double standard when it comes to female actors; apparently, we can accept older versions of nostalgic faves just as long as the women in the story get swapped out for younger models. Recently, Top Gun star Kelly McGillis revealed that she wasn't even asked to appear in the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick. Though perhaps Bill & Ted will try to explain this all away with some kind of disappointing time travel nonsense, but we doubt it.
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Top Image: Orion