Elizabeth Banks made her directorial debut on Pitch Perfect 2. While the sequel earned its fair share of negative critics, the franchise held stronger than ever. In keeping with “don’t fix what ain’t broke,” Banks will now officially return to direct Pitch Perfect 3.

Banks wasn’t 100% sure if she would return to the driver’s seat, as she was weighing other projects. Some of these included helming the adaptation of the young-adult fantasy novel The Red Queen and the feature film reboot of Charlie’s Angels. However, Variety, which was the first to report Banks’ behind-the-scenes return to her aca-awesome franchise, noted that both of these projects are still in development. Meanwhile, Universal was eager to green light a third installment of Pitch Perfect and it’s already scheduled for release on August 4, 2017.


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Image via Universal Pictures

Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, and Rebel Wilson have already closed deals to return for Pitch Perfect 3. Banks spoke with Collider earlier this year prior to the second installment’s release. Regarding the potential of a third continuation, she said:

"If fans embrace [Pitch Perfect 2], we are going to seriously think about what the continuing journey would look like, but we don’t know what that is yet."

It’s unclear who else might return, though Pitch Perfect 2 introduced Hailee Steinfeld as a new member of the Bellas. Her character, Emily, joined forces with Kendrick’s Beca for an original song to impress Beca’s producer boss, who seemed to hint at big things to come for these two gals. Plus, Snow’s Chloe decided to finally move on from college. Perhaps there’s an a cappella competition for adults that I don’t know about.

Pitch Perfect 2 has grossed more than $286 million from a $29 million production budget. Regardless of where the next one will take us, the Bellas are here to stay.


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Image via Universal Pictures