Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong Still Has Hope for an ‘American Idiot’ Movie Musical: ‘Eventually It’s Going to Happen’
The movie was originally planned as a big-screen adaptation of the 2009 Broadway show, which was based on the band's smash 2004 album.
Billie Joe Armstong still thinks an American Idiot movie could be in Green Day’s future.
On Thursday (May 1), the rocker reflected on the long-planned musical film, which was slated to be an adaptation of the 2009 Broadway production based on the band’s 2004 album of the same name.
“There was supposed to be [a film], but it never panned out,” he told Variety ahead of the band receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “I’m sure something is gonna happen. The musical did so well and they’ve done it in Australia, Italy, Germany, England … It’s traveled so well. Eventually it’s going to happen, I would think.”
American Idiot crash-landed on Broadway half a decade after Green Day’s landmark punk rock opera shot to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, virtually soundtracking the mid-2000s thanks to smash singles like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “Holiday” and the politically charged title track. (Ultimately, the jukebox musical ran for more than 400 performances, won two Tony Awards and the Grammy for best musical theater album, and nabbed a nomination for best musical at the 2010 Tonys.)
While the film version of American Idiot has yet to come to fruition, the album did spawn a 2015 documentary, Heart Like a Hand Grenade: The Making of American Idiot, which gave fans a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the album.
In 2024, Green Day celebrated the studio set’s legacy with a special 20th-anniversary reissue featuring demos, bonus cuts and an entire live album recorded at their fabled release show for the record at New York City’s Webster Hall.
The band also performed multiple cuts from American Idiot during their cathartic headlining set at Coachella 2025 in April, continuing their long-standing tradition of updating the lyrics to “American Idiot” and “Jesus of Suburbia” — this time to take a stand against the current presidential administration and the war in Gaza, respectively.
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