Eleven days ago, we heard that Wednesday and Scream VI star Jenna Ortega is circling a role in director Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice 2, which is apparently finally on the edge of going into production, thirty-five years after the first film was released. Ortega would be joining returning Beetlejuice stars Michael Keaton (as the title character), Winona Ryder (as Lydia Deetz), and Catherine O’Hara (as Lydia’s stepmother Delia), and she would be playing Lydia’s daughter. Film journalist Jeff Sneider heard the Ortega rumor a couple weeks before it went public – and during an episode of the podcast The Hot Mic, which he hosts with critic John Rocha, Sneider revealed that he has also heard “an aging action star” is in the running to play a ghost in the film. And that action star might be Jean-Claude Van Damme.
We have to be clear that this is just a RUMOR right now, but it would be very cool to see Van Damme show up as a ghost in Beetlejuice 2. The first Beetlejuice was released the same year Van Damme had a major career breakthrough with Bloodsport, so this seems like a good mix, even if it’s not something any of us ever would have predicted.
Written by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren from a story McDowell crafted with Larry Wilson, the original Beetlejuice was directed by Tim Burton and has the following synopsis: What’s a yuppie ghost couple to do when their quaint New England home is overrun by trendy New Yorkers? They hire a freelance ‘bio-exorcist’ to spook the intruders. And everyone gets more than he, she or it bargained for! Director Tim Burton teams with Michael Keaton. The result? ‘Keaton’s Beetlejuice is one of the biggest, baddest wolves a ghost movie has ever unleashed, a polter-gas’ (The Village Voice). He’s a juggernaut of jokes, jolts and jive who hurls one-liners, spins into grotesque forms, gobbles insects and can’t leave ladies (living or dead) alone. So exorcise your right to fun. Say the ‘B’ word three times and have a wonderful Day-O!
Beetlejuice 2 has been in development hell for decades. In 1990, Jonathan Gems was hired to write a sequel that was going to be titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. Burton considered having Daniel Waters rewrite that script, Pamela Norris did rewrite it, and Warner Bros. offered Kevin Smith the chance to do another rewrite. He turned it down. Seth Grahame-Smith was hired to write and produce a new version of a sequel in 2011. Mike Vukadinovich was brought on to rewrite his script in 2017.
Now, if all goes well, it looks like Beetlejuice 2 could star filming in London in late May or early June.
Would you like to see Jean-Claude Van Damme play a ghost in Beetlejuice 2? Share your thoughts on this rumor by leaving a comment below.