Bill & Ted go back to the future in these exclusive new images

The Bill & Ted series is at the loveable and goofy end of the sci-fi spectrum. Despite the titular buddies earning cult status and legions of fans over the years, almost three decades have passed between 1991's Bogus Journey and this year's follow-up threequel, Face The Music.

Well, maybe it's arriving just when we need it most. After all, who couldn't do with a comforting, nostalgic reunion with old friends right about now?

The new film sees the buddies (played once again by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) heading to the future to steal a world-uniting song from, um, themselves. Only their future selves are in prison, with bulging muscles covered in tattoos...

Our sister publication Total Film magazine has the full story on the upcoming comedy in their new cover feature, including an exclusive look at the future Bill & Ted below. You can also see new images of Bill & Ted's offspring Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine), as well as writer Ed Solomon and director Dean Parisot on set giving notes to a robot.

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“Working on that material [1989's Excellent Adventure], and getting to play it, I thought it was pretty special,” Reeves tells Total Film when he considers if he’d anticipated the audience love and the possibility of a trilogy from that first film. “I certainly, at that time, had no expectation that you and I would be speaking here today!”

Winter agrees: “Yeah, I mean, the very first movie was made by a bunch of young, scrappy people – and pretty independently, and we didn’t really know what to expect. And frankly, neither did the producers. We knew it was an idiosyncratic film, so we didn’t really know where it was going to go...”

Inside the new issue of Total Film - which hits shelves real and digital from this Friday, July 24, Reeves, Winter, Lundy-Paine, Weaving, Parisot, Solomon and co-writer Chris Matheson talk in-depth about the long-awaited threequel, which is scheduled to hit cinemas in August.

Winter shared a first look at the new covers to his Twitter followers:

If you’re a fan of Total Film magazine, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? Sign up via MyFavouriteMagazines, and with our latest offer you’ll get a year's subscription for half price! Plus you'll also get exclusive subscriber-only covers like the Bill & Ted one that's currently on its way to subscribers right now. (Ts & Cs apply, follow link for full details.)