Everything We Know About Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Say his name three times. Do it. Unlike Candyman, most people would love to summon the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice. He’s the Ghost With The Most. The film Beetlejuice became an instant classic when it haunted theater screens in the spring of 1988. Burton’s visual aesthetic, along with the amazing performances by Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, captivated audiences. The horror comedy easily grossed over $75 Million at the box office on a $15 Million budget. People loved the character, and he even got a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off that kids loved, but it’s taken thirty-five years for them to get Beetlejuice 2 (or as it’ s now called, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) off the ground! While, after many false starts, the Beetlejuice sequel has finished shooting, believe it or not, work on Beetlejuice 2 began not long after the original movie premiered! We did a whole video that dived into the production history that you can watch here, but here’s the gist of it:

Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian?

In 1990 Tim Burton was riding high on his Batman film breaking all sorts of records at the summer box office. He had a golden ticket to work on anything he wanted. As he was finishing up work on Edward Scissorhands, he began to turn his attention to what his next projects would be. He had another Batman film on the horizon but wanted to get working on one of his other projects. Burton hired British playwright Jonathan Gems to work on a script for Beetlejuice 2 called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.

Tim Burton wanted to take the character out of the dreary underworld and put him in the colorful and sun-filled islands. The Deetz family was going to move there to open a new resort. Turns out Charles didn’t do any research and ended up building it on the resting place of a great Hawaiian Kahuna. The spirit would come back to the world of the living and cause problems for the family and surrounding citizens causing them to call in the big guns. At one point Beetlejuice even wins a surfing contest by using his magic. It seems strange but Jonathan Gems said Burton loved the idea. “Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism because they’re totally wrong together,”

Keaton and Ryder both agreed to return on the condition that Burton would again be directing. Before work could get started on it Burton and Keaton got busy with Batman Returns. A few years later producer David Geffen would hire writer Pamela Norris to take a shot at rewriting the script. It eventually fell into development hell. Famously Kevin Smith was offered a chance to take a shot at it. He turned it down in favor of writing Superman Lives. When asked why he turned it down he replied, “didn’t we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”

Eventually, the project died. When he was asked about the Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian script, Jonathan Gems said it was too late to make the film as Ryder had aged out of the part as it was written. They would have to recast and no one really wanted that.

New After-Life

After two decades of sitting on the shelf, in 2011 Warner Bros. approached Seth Grahame-Smith about writing a new sequel and even producing it. He had worked with Burton on Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter previously. Smith said he signed to make sure it was “a story that is worthy of us actually doing this for real, something that is not just about cashing in, is not just about forcing a remake or a reboot down someone’s throat.” He said he had met with Keaton about doing the film, and he was on board.

They had gone over the story and Keaton seemed to be really excited to finally get back to the character. Ryder herself said that she was excited to return to the role but only if Burton and Keaton were involved. She stated that Lydia was an important part of her that she wanted to explore again 27 years later. Burton said that they had been working on the script and were excited to get started in 2014.

It seemed that the sequel was moving forward and everyone was happy . . . but that window came and went and no movement happened on the film. In 2015 Ryder was on a talk show and said she was for sure coming back to the role and that she couldn’t wait to get started. By 2017 screenwriter Mike Vukadinovich was hired to do a re-write of the script. In 2019 Warner Bros. confirmed that the project was in fact sitting in the waiting room of the afterlife. Burton and Keaton eventually did reunite, for the Disney remake of Dumbo in 2019.

Our only hope is . . . Brad Pitt?

With the project once again dead on arrival there looked like no hope of ever seeing a Beetlejuice 2… until Brad Pitt stepped in. Well, not Brad Pitt personally but his production company Plan B Entertainment. In February of 2022, his company announced its producing the new film, and sure enough – it actually happened this time, with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar writing the screenplay.

Beetlejuice 2: The Cast

Burton has stated in the past that he would only do the film if Keaton agreed to return, but the stars aligned and it finally happened. We never thought we would see him back in the Batsuit either but hey, that happened too. Just recently, we got our first look (thanks to Entertainment Weekly) at Keaton reprising the role for the first time in thirty-six years!

Costume designer Colleen Atwood confirmed that Keaton would be wearing his iconic black and white striped suit again, although she admitted that Keaton has more of an affinity for the Burgundy tux.

Other confirmed cast members include original Beetlejuice heroine Winona Ryder, who’s reprising her role as Lydia Deetz (now the host of a TV series called Ghost House with Lydia Deetz) opposite Catherine O’Hara, who also returns as her mother Delia Deetz. It’s been confirmed that Jeffrey Jones, who had a rather sordid brush with the law many years ago and has not worked much since, will not be returning. In fact, the newly released teaser seems to suggest his character has been killed off.

Jenna Ortega, who previously teamed with Burton on Netflix’s wildly popular show Wednesday, plays Lydia’s daughter Astrid. Justin Theroux is in there as a character named Rory, Lydia’s fiancé. Monica Bellucci, who in real life is dating Burton (lucky guy!), is also in the cast, apparently as Beetlejuice’s wife, while Willem Dafoe apparently plays a dead B-movie action star, which sounds kind of hilarious. There’s also a rumour that Jean-Claude Van Damme has a cameo. Maybe as a former co-star of Dafoe’s?

Keaton Loves It!

While promoting his new film, Knox Goes Away, Keaton raved about an early cut of the film he saw on the Jess Cagle Show: “It is really good. And beautiful. Beautiful, you know, physically. You know what I mean? The other one was so fun and exciting visually. It’s all that, but really kind of beautiful and interestingly emotional here and there. I wasn’t ready for that, you know. Yeah, it’s great.”

Keaton told Total Film that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has a stronger story than the first movie had and “there’s more of a connection for the audience in terms of the other characters. There’s things in here that I wasn’t ready for, that are beyond delightful. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t wait until this thing shows up,’ or, ‘I just want this thing called Beetlejuice to go nuts.’“ Ryder added, “I feel very confident that it will match and exceed expectations. It certainly did mine, and mine are way up there. I literally think every generation can find something in it that they’ll really appreciate.“

Keaton has also said that he didn’t want Beetlejuice to have too much screen time in this movie, after he only appeared in the first film for 17 minutes. He said to GQ, “The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it. I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He’s more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.”

As for what the character is like now, 36 years after we first met him… well, he’s the same guy. Burton told Collider, “Michael [Keaton] and I both love the fact that he was politically incorrect then, and he’s politically incorrect now. [Laughs] I’m just laughing because somebody asked him the other day, ‘Michael, how does Beetlejuice’s character evolve?’ And we just started laughing because he doesn’t evolve — that’s the whole point!“

What’s It About?

Here’s the official synopsis from the studio:

“Beetlejuice is back!  After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River.  Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened.  With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has been rated PG-13 for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.

When Will We See It?

As of now, Warner Brothers have set the release of the film for September 6, 2024. They recently put out the first poster, which also confirmed the new title, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as well as the release date:

Trailer

Multiple trailers have been released, and here’s the final one:

Attendees of the Warner Bros. panel at the CinemaCon event got to see an extended preview that highlighted the film’s practical effects. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray reported, “WB showed more of what Keaton’s performance is like, and it’s fantastic! The full trailer is much better than the teaser. Beetlejuice had pined for Lydia, and he was still obsessed when he was awakened. Notably, you see the Jeffrey Jones character get killed by a shark, but in stop-motion.”

Are you excited to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Let us know in the comments.