Bill & Ted: The connections to I Am Legend and The Matrix

The cast and creatives behind Bill & Ted Face the Music came together for a panel to discuss the new film at SDCC. Here’s what we learned.

Last time we checked in with Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, they were introducing the latest trailer for Bill & Ted Face the Music, the continued adventures of William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq and Ted “Theodore” Logan. In addition to capturing the energy of their previous films, Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, the trailer offered a glimmer of hope for 2020: if these dudes can return to the spotlight after almost 30 years, maybe we’re not doomed as a species, after all.

In addition to appearing in select theaters, Bill & Ted Face the Music will be available on VOD September 1. And if the new trailer isn’t enough to make you energetically strum your air-guitar, Winter, Reeves, and other members of the creative team graced SDCC with a panel discussion about their latest effort, where the stakes are global.

Pop-culture Rosetta Stone Kevin Smith (Clerks) hosted the panel, calling Bill & Ted Face the Music “a promise fulfilled,” and referring to his experience watching the film as “transcendent.”

An interesting tidbit from the panel is co-writer Chris Matheson’s status as son of legendary author Richard Matheson, who gave us a wealth of memorable sci-fi and horror novels (I Am Legend), not to mention his status as a key creative force on the original Twilight Zone. Maybe it’s a bit of incidental (or deliberate) irony that one of the elder Matheson’s works was Somewhere in Time, where time travel was integral to the plot.

In another bit of cross-generational synchronicity, Samara Weaving plays Bill’s daughter, Thea. Weaving is the niece of Hugo Weaving, who was Reeves’ arch-nemesis in The Matrix trilogy. It’s actually pretty endearing to hear her and Brigette Lundy-Paine (as Ted’s daughter, Billie) admit they hadn’t seen the other Bill & Ted movies prior to auditioning.

Meanwhile, director Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) alludes to the challenges of “[how] to contemporize and bring the characters back in middle age.” Despite the obvious trepidation, I think the world is prepared for Bill & Ted’s triumphant return.

You can watch the full panel discussion below.

Were you aware of the relationships between I Am Legend and The Matrix? Let us know what you thought of the Bill & Ted panel in the comments.