After years of waiting, Bill and Ted 3, AKA Bill and Ted Face the Music, is finally happening. The funding is in place, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are confirmed to return, and now all we have to do is wait just a little bit longer.

If you need some info to tide you over, however, co-writer Ed Solomon has offered up some Bill and Ted 3 plot details, which you can read below.

We already have some Bill and Ted 3 plot details thanks to previous interviews. For instance, it’s been established that the new film will find everyone’s favorite airhead time travelers now living as middle-aged family men who long ago gave up their dreams of rock and roll stardom. We also know that William Sadler’s character Death from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey will be returning. “This is not, ‘Hey let’s all cash-in on the Bill & Ted thing for money’ – this is the opposite,” co-writer Ed Solomon previously said. “This is, ‘We love these characters, they’ve been with us for our whole lives’ – Chris and me, and Alex and Keanu – and we wanted to visit them again as middle-aged men. We thought it would be really fun, and funny, and sweet.”

Now, Solomon has offered up some new info in an interview with Collider.

Bill And Ted Travel Through Time Again

The first Bill and Ted movie focused on time travel. While there was time travel involved in the sequel, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, the plot went in a much different direction – taking Bill and Ted into the afterlife. Bill And Ted Face the Music brings back the time travel storyline yet again. According to Solomon, the middle-aged Bill and Ted are visited by “somebody from the future” who tells them: “You have 24 hours. The fate of all of space/time depends on [a song you’ve written] – and if it doesn’t happen now, it’s never gonna happen.”

Bill and Ted then decide to travel into the future to steal this world-changing song from their future-selves. As Solomon puts it:

“So in their desperation they decide their only option is to go into the future – to when the have written it – and to steal it from themselves. What follows is a kind of utterly absurd, Christmas Carol-like journey through their lives past, present, and future.”

Having Bill and Ted visit events from their past is a great idea, especially if it allows the filmmakers the opportunity to recreate scenes from the previous two Bill and Ted films.

Passage of Time

Even though Bill and Ted 3 brings back the time travel element, Solomon says the ultimate goal of the film was to try to do something new. What the film ultimately focuses on is the passage of time, while also trying to tell a unique story:

“It’s been 30 years. Let’s be real about the passage of time. We want to maintain the tone, the sweetness, the absurdity and we want it to be a movie that is not just for fans of the first movie but hopefully for people of any age who haven’t seen the movies. But most importantly, we want it to be something unique – something people haven’t seen before. Also, we think it’s really cool to take characters you last saw as teenagers and explore them again as middle aged men. What would that be like?”

Keanu Reeves is an actor who has spent a good chunk of his career playing dour, serious types, so what I’m most interested in here is seeing him take on a silly part again. And part of this film’s DNA seems to involve Reeves and Alex Winters’ characters reflecting on the silly natures of their characters.

Cynicism Free

One of the most refreshing reveals from Solomon’s interview is his claim that Bill and Ted 3 will be free of cynicism. When asked how Bill and Ted 3 is going to stand-out from other comedies, Solomon says:

“A lot of comedy right now is really cynical. It’s either snarky or self-referential or “meta” or really dark or really negative, and Bill & Ted is none of those. It’s sweet. There’s nothing cynical and there’s nothing snarky in this movie, and if that’s what you like – cynical, dark, malevolent humor – then you’re not gonna like this movie. At a time when there’s just so much negativity everywhere, I feel like this movie is complete counterprogramming to that.”

Listen: I’m a pretty cynical person, and I really wish I weren’t. To hear that Bill and Ted 3 is going for a cynicism-free approach sounds kind of refreshing. Solomon adds:

“Look, there’s emotion in it, but I think it’s really ultimately about two of the most joyful characters that I certainly have ever been involved with – characters who have had life hit them hard – and who are able to not just maintain but reinvigorate their joy, their spirit…”

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We don’t have a specific date as to when we might see Bill and Ted 3, but Solomon says they hope to go into production after Keanu Reeves finishes filming John Wick 3. “We don’t have a specific start date yet, but I think we’re probably looking at later this year,” says the screenwriter. Hopefully we’ll learn even more about the film after the production begins. For now, let’s just be happy the movie is happening at all.