Talk has circulated of a third entry in what would be the Bill & Ted trilogy for years now, despite the decades that have passed since the release of 1991’s surprisingly excellent Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and the death of George Carlin, who played Bill & Ted’s guide and mentor, Rufus. The promise of a third Bill & Ted epic has been nothing but a beautiful, beautiful dream, perpetuated in large part by its ever-optimistic stars, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who have been talking about the project publicly since at least 2010. But in a recent interview with Yahoo! movies to promote his supporting appearance in the melodrama Grand Piano, Winter revealed that the project has made some real progress in the past four years. Winter says Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, who wrote the scripts for the first two films, have finished multiple drafts for a third film that would explore Bill and Ted as 40 year old fuck-ups who may or may not be way behind on their life’s work of saving the universe.

According to Winter, the project has a producer, a director in Galaxy Quest’s Dean Parisot (a potentially inspired choice if the film comes to fruition), and financing. Now it’s simply a matter of refining the script and the premise, and doing so in the public eye. Winter sounds pretty confident of the film’s chances in the article, but with projects like these, there are about a million things that can go wrong and keep a film from getting made. While we remain skeptical, there is something inspired and irreverent about re-imagining these eternal teen icons as unsuccessful middle-aged men. There’s the potential for comedy, of course, but also something a little deeper and darker; it will be fascinating to see what will come of all this planning and speculation, if anything. 

For those looking for weird synchronicity, this news follows the recent revelation that Keanu Reeves would totally be open for a Speed 3. Would a Speed 3 sequel be a crossover with Bill & Ted 3? We’re guessing not, but a man can dream—or, alternately, experience dark, disturbing nightmares.