Elizabeth Banks to Return as Pitch Perfect 3 Director

Elizabeth Banks is officially set as Universal Pictures’ Pitch Perfect 3 director 

It was made official not long after the tremendous box office debut of Universal Pictures‘ Pitch Perfect 2 earlier this year, that a third film is on the way to arrive in 2017. Today, Variety reports that Elizabeth Banks is now officially set to return as the Pitch Perfect 3 director. She made her feature film directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2, taking the reins from the original Pitch Perfect‘s Jason Moore.

Anna Kendrick, Britanny Snow and Rebel Wilson have already been confirmed to headline the returning cast of Pitch Perfect 3 with other talent expected to be confirmed in the near future. Pitch Perfect 2 also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Anna Camp, Alexis Knapp, Adam DeVine, Katey Sagal, Ester Dean, Kelley Jakle and Hana Mae Lee.

Kay Cannon, who scripted the first two franchise entries, is working on the script for the third film. An Emmy-nominated writer and actress with a heavy improv background, Cannon is also known for her work on NBC’s “30 Rock” and Fox’s “New Girl.”

Pitch Perfect 3 will be produced by series fixtures Paul Brooks of Gold Circle Entertainment and Max Handelman & Elizabeth Banks of Brownstone Productions. It will arrive in theaters July 21, 2017. The only other film currently set to open on that release date is Luc Besson’s science fiction adventure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne.

Elizabeth Banks, who will return one last time as Effie Trinket for next month’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, is also attached to direct Universal’s big screen version of the YA novel Red Queen.

What do you think of Elizabeth Banks returning as the Pitch Perfect 3 director? What would you like to see happen in the third film? Let us know in the comments below!