Elizabeth Banks Is Returning To One Of Her Most Popular Franchises
Elizabeth Banks is heading back to one of her best and most successful franchises. This world has plenty of hilarious stories waiting in it
A Pitch Perfect series has been ordered at Peacock with Elizabeth Banks set to executive produce via her Brownstone Productions banner. Adam Devine will also reprise his role as Bumper Allen in a straight-to-series comedy sequel. However, unlike the movies which followed an all-female a cappella group, the series will focus on Devine’s musical journey.
Bumper was the main antagonist of the first film and the leader of The Treblemakers – an all-male a cappella singing group. He returned in the second film as a supporting character and the love interest of Rebel Wilson’s character, Fat Amy. Then he worked as a backup singer for John Mayer before returning to Barden University, as a security guard.
The Elizabeth Banks produced series is set several years after the events of the Pitch Perfect films. The story will follow Bumper Allen (Devine), who moves to Germany to revive his music career when one of his songs becomes a big hit in Berlin.
According to an exclusive report by Variety, Elizabeth Banks is producing alongside Brownstone’s Max Handelman, Gold Circle’s Paul Brooks, Scott Neimeyer, Devine, and Megan Amram (The Good Place). Megan Amram will also serve as writer and showrunner. An episode count has not yet been determined.
Speaking about the new series, chairman of entertainment content at NBC Universal Television and Streaming, Susan Rovner said, “Our upcoming Pitch Perfect series is another example of the unmatched synergy NBCUniversal can expand upon with our wide-ranging library of IP.”
She added that when NBCUniversal saw the opportunity to create a series for Pitch Perfect with Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, and Paul Brooks plus more earworm classics for super fans to enjoy, the studio jumped at it. And to top it off, they are very fortunate that Adam Devine is headlining the series and bringing fans the quirky, laugh-out-loud sensibility they loved in the film franchise.
Viewers were first introduced to the Pitch Perfect films in 2012. Billed as a musical comedy, the first movie was directed by Jason Moore from a script by Kay Cannon. It followed the musical adventures of Barden University’s all-girl a cappella group, The Barden Bellas, as they compete against another a cappella group from their college to win Nationals.
Much to the delight of fans, the movie featured an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Hana Mae Lee, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Wanetah Walmsley, Adam DeVine, Ben Platt, Utkarsh Ambudkar, John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks.
Moreover, the film, in which Elizabeth Banks appeared as commentator Gail Abernathy-McKadden, is loosely adapted from Mickey Rapkin’s non-fiction book, titled Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory. It received positive reviews from critics and became a sleeper hit, earning over $115 million at the global box office. Due to its success, the film was followed by two sequels, Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 and Pitch Perfect 3 in 2017.
