Yesterday, we saw a couple first look images from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel to his 1988 classic Beetlejuice (watch it HERE) – and now the first teaser trailer for the film has arrived online! You can check it out in the embed above. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to reach theatres on September 6th, so we still have over five months left to wait for this one.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was in development hell for decades before it finally got made. 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.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners of Wednesday, have written the screenplay for Beetlejuice 2 that was actually filmed. Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing the sequel, which filmed in London before moving to Vermont and Massachusetts.
Here’s the official synopsis: 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.
Michael Keaton is back in the role of the titular “ghost with the most” and is joined in the cast by Winona Ryder, reprising the role of Lydia Deetz; Catherine O’Hara, back as Lydia’s stepmother Delia; Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, Justin Theroux as a fellow named Rory, Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s wife and Willem Dafoe as a law enforcement officer in the afterlife. Arthur Conti is also in there, in an unspecified role.
Burton told Entertainment Weekly that, after putting off a Beetlejuice sequel for decades, he connected with the idea of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice because he was interested in catching up with the Lydia character and seeing where she is now. He said, “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. That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it.“
He also explained the choice of the title, and why the poster (you can check it out below) has the odd 2024 A.D. addition on it, which made some of us think that was part of the title. “It’s been, what? Thirty-five years. So it didn’t feel like Beetlejuice 2 to me. 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 (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) was a nice simple one.“
Are you looking forward to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? What did you think of the teaser trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.