By Rishab Dey
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice will finally have a sequel, Warner Bros. has announced 35 years after the 1988 premiere of the first movie.
For Beetlejuice 2, some of the original movie’s stars, including Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, will return to their roles. Meanwhile, newcomers like Justin Theroux and Jenna Ortega will make their film debuts in Burton’s macabre universe.
The Week reported that the long-awaited sequel is finally in the making after numerous failed sequel attempts. The previous attempts include a 1990s draft of Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. Another attempt to bring the characters back for a sequel was undertaken in the 2010s, but development stagnated.
The Sequel News So Far
In 2019, Burton expressed concerns to USA Today that he doubted Beetlejuice 2 would be produced.
However, after Deadline announced that Plan B, Brad Pitt’s entertainment company, had signed on, the film appeared to come back to life in 2022. At Empire’s VIP event in June 2023, Keaton talked openly about the undertaking saying. “We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie,” adding further that he and Burton had already agreed “years and years ago” that the sequel “has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something.”
Keaton shared excitedly about the fun he had on sets, calling it “F–in’ great.” “It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long.”
Here is all there is to know about Beetlejuice 2, including the cast and the story.
Who Will Be Cast?
Many of the main actors from the first movie are set to return in their respective parts, including Ryder, who played self-described “strange and unusual” adolescent Lydia Deetz, and Keaton, who played Beetlejuice. O’Hara, who most recently appeared in Schitt’s Creek, will return as Delia Deets, Lydia’s quirky mother.
Several publications stated in March 2023 that Ortega was in discussions to play the daughter of Ryder’s character in the Beetlejuice sequel. Two months later, Warner Bros. made the movie’s official announcement, and the Wednesday star was actually referred to as “Lydia’s daughter.”
Days later, it was revealed that Monica Bellucci, allegedly dating Burton, is one of the sequel’s new cast members. The Mafia Mamma actress will portray Beetlejuice’s wife in the film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Willem Dafoe also boarded the ensemble and will reportedly portray a law enforcement official in the afterlife.
Theroux is slated to appear in Beetlejuice 2, but his part has not yet been made public. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, who initially played Adam and Barbara Maitland, might not be able to return to their roles. In October 2022, Davis revealed to PEOPLE that she “would of course like to revisit” Beetlejuice but is aware that since she and Baldwin play ghosts, it may be challenging to explain the actors’ more affluent appearances. “I have a feeling that ghosts don’t age,” she said. “How would they explain that they’re older?”
How Did The First Part End?
In Burton’s 1988 picture, Adam and Barbara Maitland, a recently dead couple, discover that a new family, Charles and Delia Deetz and their teenage daughter Lydia, are now in their new home. Beetlejuice, a raucous, green-haired ghost from the afterlife, is shortly hired by the couple to help scare the family away.
When Beetlejuice devises his own strategy and tries to wed young Lydia in order to wreak havoc in the mortal realm, their plan backfires. Beetlejuice is defeated, and the wedding is stopped, thanks to Lydia’s parents and the Maitlands’ intervention. In the end, there is a peaceful coexistence between the two families.
What Will Beetlejuice 2 Be About?
While the plot’s specifics are yet unknown, fans can infer from the cast that the movie will center on a grown-up Lydia and her daughter having to encounter Beetlejuice in the afterlife and encounter difficulties.
The script was written by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, who collaborated with Burton on Wednesday.
When Did Filming Begin?
According to Variety, shooting is thought to have started in London in May 2023.
Ryder was seen filming a scene for the film in Hertfordshire, England, the same month. She was pictured sitting in the passenger seat of a Tesla with the jet-black hair and black attire of her role.
Ryder and Ortega were seen filming what appeared to be a wedding scene in July 2023. The actress from You covered up her white tulle wedding dress with a sweater because it was a cool summer day in Hertfordshire, while Ryder was warmed up in a big puffer jacket.
The Movie Will Retain Its Original Theme
The movie is set to have the anticipated fantastical element while adhering to its central theme of family and what has happened to it over the years. “Although it’s fantastical, when you look at the explanation between the data and the nuances of everything, you will always find something that goes back to kind of something personal for him. So although it’s a fantastical story, it, again, at the heart of it [is] a brilliant, warm family story. It is the story of a family and how it’s progressed over for 30 years. And I think that’s always the basis of a great story,” Beetlejuice’s DP has revealed.
Viewers are eager to discover more about the Deetz family, particularly how Ortega’s character fits into the existing dynamic. But Zambarloukos’s claim that Beetlejuice 2 is really a “family” film raises some troubling questions. Keaton’s Betelgeuse, the title character of the first movie, received no attention in favor of the Deetzes and the Maitlands, and the enigmatic criminal was, at most, a frightening sidekick. Fans may never learn more about the adored Betelgeuse and his past if Beetlejuice 2 maintains the family theme, as the DP’s statements imply it would.
It remains to be seen if Burton’s eagerly anticipated sequel will completely ignore its ostensible main character in favor of the returning and new Deetzes.
The theatrical release of Beetlejuice 2 is scheduled for September 6, 2024.
Wrapping Up
Are you excited to get spooked the adorable way? Have you been waiting for Beetlejuice to come back on screen with a sequel? How did you like the first movie?
If you have thoughts to share or questions to ask about Beetlejuice 2, please leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you!
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