Alyson Hannigan is going to be coming back for the fourth instalment of the American Pie series, American Reunion, Deadline is reporting.
I say fourth instalment because, like most people, the four films that followed American Wedding didn’t really get much attention on my radar.
Having grown up with the original films forming a solid part of my love of teen comedies, I think Hannigan signing on to come back alongside the original cast is great news. The film is written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle together, and wrote, directed, and co-produced the film’s sequel, Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
Whilst critics’ opinions on the original American Pie films tend not to be overwhelmingly favourable, perhaps because teen films rarely do well critically but the first three films alone have made over $750 million with a combined budget of less than $100 million, so clearly they must be doing something right.
I think Universal have definitely gone down the right path getting Hurwitz and Schlossberg to write and direct the sequel to American Wedding and with Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Tara Reid, and Thomas Ian Nicholas all already signed on of the original cast, this news that Hannigan will be returning is very much welcomed. She’s a brilliant actress, and with the new story said to revolve around her and Jason Biggs’ characters having a child together, it would not have worked as well getting an actress to replace Hannigan.
Of everyone from the first three movies, Hannigan is the only one who’s really maintained a high status in her career, playing one of the leads in the very popular TV series, How I Met Your Mother. She’ll be shooting American Reunion before returning to the show, which after six seasons has been picked up for at least another two.
With almost all the original cast in place now (I’m hoping Chris Klein will be making a comeback, and with any luck Casey Affleck will too, even if it’s only a small cameo), the project is set to begin filming next month. No release date has been set yet, but you can be sure that we’ll keep you up to date when we hear more.
