In Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive first look of Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton reprises his renowned role as Batman, having played the character in The Flash last year. Beetlejuice, the follow-up to Tim Burton’s beloved film.
The characters of Lydia and Delia Deetz are also reprised by Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, respectively; Jenna Ortega, actress of Burton’s Wednesday, plays Lydia’s daughter Astrid, and Justin Theroux, star of The Leftovers, plays Rory. Unlike the title “bio-exorcist,” Rory’s further details are currently under wraps.
In the 1988 film Beetlejuice, the recently deceased Barbara and Adam Maitland, with the help of the cheeky demon Beetlejuice/Betelgeuse (Keaton), attempt to drive out the Deetz family, who were the present occupants of their home. And then everything goes crazy.
Decades later, a death in the family triggers the events of the sequel. “That’s all I will say,” Burton says in an interview with EW. “There’s something that happens that sets things in motion.” Is that the passing of Charles Deetz, Lydia’s father (Jeffrey Jones)? Playing coy, the director says, “We’ll see.” Without a doubt, Beetlejuice makes a reappearance.
Putting Keaton back in the vintage attire and cosmetics, according to Burton, was “a weird out-of-body experience.”
“He just got back into it,” remembers the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Batman (1989), which also starred Keaton. For “It was kind of scary for somebody who was maybe not that overly interested in doing it. It was such a beautiful thing for me to see all the cast, but he, sort of like demon possession, just went right back into it.”
(L-r) In the Warner Bros. Pictures comedy BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, Catherine O’Hara plays Delia, Jenna Ortega plays Astrid, Winona Ryder plays Lydia, and Justin Theroux plays Rory.
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ stars Catherine O’Hara as Delia, Jenna Ortega as Astrid, Winona Ryder as Lydia, and Justin Theroux as Rory. TAGHIZADEH PARISA/WARNER BROS.
Over the years, Burton claims that he and Keaton have discussed a sequel intermittently. The director remembers, “He had no burning desire to do it unless it felt right.” “I think we all felt the same way. It only made sense if it had an emotional hook.”
A number of ideas were proposed, some going all the way back to the 1980s, including one that was based in Hawaii. Burton states, ” “That was early on when we were going, Beetlejuice and the Haunted Mansion, Beetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up.”
But what they really needed was some time. After the first film came out, all of his actors—including Ryder and O’Hara—went on to other roles, and Burton observes that “nobody was really pushing for it.” The director also acknowledges that he wasn’t inspired to proceed with an idea that didn’t thrill him because he didn’t comprehend the first movie’s popularity at first—and he still doesn’t fully grasp it.
But what they really needed was some time. After the first film came out, all of his actors—including Ryder and O’Hara—went on to other roles, and Burton observes that “nobody” “was really pushing for it.” The director also acknowledges that he wasn’t inspired to proceed with an idea that didn’t thrill him because he didn’t comprehend the first movie’s popularity at first—and he still doesn’t fully grasp it.
It turns out that the hook he was searching for centers on Ryder’s Lydia and how she unites three generations of Deetz women—O’Hara’s Delia, Ortega’s Astrid, and O’Hara herself. “I so identified with the Lydia character, but then you get to all these years later, and you take your own journey, going from cool teenager to lame adult, back and forth again,” he says. “That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it.”
additional than the fact that the cast includes Willem Dafoe (Poor Things), Monica Bellucci (Spectre), and Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon), no additional information about the movie is currently known. (Dafoe has already revealed that he played an action star in B movies who passed away and went on to become a police officer in the afterlife.) Given that he’s still making changes to the film during the editing process, Burton feels “a bit jinx-y” about disclosing this kind of information.
However, he does affirm that stop-motion animation will be used to bring many of the iconic Beetlejuice effects to the screen. “It needed a back-to-basics, handmade quality,” according to him. “It reenergized why I love making movies.”
What about that title, too? The Beetlejuice Beetle juice. “It’s been, what? Thirty-five years. So it didn’t feel like Beetlejuice 2 to me,” Burton says. “It didn’t feel like that kind of a movie. The other one I thought of, because one of my favorite Dracula movies is Dracula A.D. 1972, was Beetlejuice 2024 A.D. But this was a nice simple one.”
