Elizabeth Banks Explains Pitch Perfect 3 Departure

 

It was disappointing to all fans of the Pitch Perfect franchise when Elizabeth Banks revealed that she’d be stepping out of the director’s chair for Pitch Perfect 3, letting another filmmaker take the reins. But Banks will still be involved in the production, and she’s recently gone on record to explain exactly what happened behind the scenes that led her to walk away.

Simply put, it was a scheduling change that caused Banks’ change of heart. Universal shifted Pitch Perfect 3 off the incredibly blockbuster-heavy summer 2017 slate in favor of a release date around Christmas time that year, which would have involved Banks shooting the film out of the summer season – and at a time far less convenient for her as a parent.

She said “We’ve been in development and it’s taking longer than we thought, I thought I was going to direct the movie in the summer. It was really important to me to direct the movie in summer because if we pushed into fall it bumped up against my parental responsibilities, which made me feel uncomfortable”

Pitch Perfect 3, which still needs a director in the wake of Banks’ departure, will open at Christmas time in 2017.