The long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice finally seems like it will be happening, and Danny Elfman couldn’t be more excited. While speaking with Deadline, Danny Elfman teased his return for Beetlejuice 2, which will reunite him with his longtime collaborator Tim Burton.
“I love being a fly on the wall when he’s shooting. I’ll be doing that in a couple of months, as you may know, on another Tim Burton project,” Danny Elfman said of Beetlejuice 2. “That is very exciting, to return to that world.” He added that someone recently asked him if Michael Keaton could really step back into Beetlejuice 35 years after the release of the original movie. “I said, ‘He’s not even going to look that much different. That’s the beauty of the Beetlejuice makeup. He already looked like he was 150 in the first one,’” Elfman explained. “It’s perfect, you know? Everybody else has to play the next generation, except for Michael. I mean, he’s still like really fit and really active and really on it. And with the Beetlejuice makeup, I can’t even imagine it’s going to look like he’s changed practically at all. So, I can’t wait for that.“
Beetlejuice 2 is expected to see Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder stepping back into their roles, and there have been rumblings that Jenna Ortega will be joining the cast as the daughter of Ryder’s character. Tim Burton will return to direct from a script by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners of Netflix’s Wednesday series. The sequel is looking to start shooting this summer in London.
A sequel to Beetlejuice has been in the works since the release of the first movie back in 1988. The gang was supposed to return for Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, but the project never moved forward. It resurfaced a decade ago when Warner Bros. tapped Seth Grahame-Smith to pen the script, but once again spent years in development hell before Tim Burton admitted that it likely wouldn’t happen. I’m not about to hold my breath, but it will be interesting to see how the last 35 years have changed Beetlejuice; plus, I’m always down for more Michael Keaton in my life.