Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! 35 years after the original film’s 1988 release, Warner Bros. announced that Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is finally getting a sequel. Some of the stars of the original film, like Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, will reprise their roles for Beetlejuice 2. Meanwhile, fresh faces like Jenna Ortega and Justin Theroux will make their debut in Burton’s ghoulish world. News of the long-awaited sequel comes after multiple failed attempts at a second movie, including a script for Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian in the 1990s, according to The Week. In the 2010s, there was another movement to revive the characters for a sequel, but production stalled, and in 2019, Burton told USA Today he doubted Beetlejuice 2 would be made. However, the project seemed to rise from the dead in 2022 after Deadline reported that Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, had signed on. In June 2023, Keaton opened up about the project at Empire's VIP event. We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie, the actor said, adding that he and Burton agreed years and years ago that a sequel has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. Keaton also gushed about how much fun he's had on set. F---in great, he said. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long. From the cast to the plot, here's everything to know about Beetlejuice 2. Many of the leading players from the original film are slated to reprise their roles, including Keaton, who played Beetlejuice and Ryder, who portrayed self-proclaimed strange and unusual teenager Lydia Deetz. O’Hara, who more recently starred in Schitt’s Creek, will return as Lydia’s eccentric mother, Delia Deets. In March 2023, multiple outlets reported that Ortega was in talks to star in the Beetlejuice sequel, playing the daughter of Ryder's character. When the film was officially announced by Warner Bros. two months later, the Wednesday star was indeed billed as Lydia’s daughter.
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Days later, news broke that Monica Bellucci, who is rumored to be dating Burton, is among the new cast members in the sequel. The Mafia Mamma star is set to play Beetlejuice’s wife. Willem Dafoe also joined the cast and is believed to be playing a law enforcement officer in the afterlife, per The Hollywood Reporter. Theroux is also set to be in Beetlejuice 2, though his role has yet to be revealed. However, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, who started as Adam and Barbara Maitland, may be unable to revisit their characters. In October 2022, Davis told PEOPLE that she would of course like to revisit the Beetlejuice word again but knows that with her and Baldwin’s characters being ghosts, the actors’ more mature looks may be difficult to explain. I have a feeling that ghosts don't age, she said. How would they explain that they're older?
Burton’s 1988 film follows a recently deceased married couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland, who find that a new family, Charles and Delia Deetz, along with their teenage daughter Lydia, have moved into their home. The couple soon hire Beetlejuice, a green-haired, boisterous ghost from the world of the dead, to help them scare the family away. Their plan backfires when Beetlejuice hatches his own scheme and attempts to marry young Lydia in order to wreak havoc in the mortal world. Lydia’s parents and the Maitlands intervene, stopping the wedding and defeating Beetlejuice. In the end, both families inhabit the house peacefully. While details of the plot are still under wraps, fans can assume from the casting that the story will follow an adult Lydia and her daughter as they run into trouble with Beetlejuice and the world of the dead.
Filming is believed to have begun in London in May 2023, according to Variety. That same month, Ryder was spotted filming a scene for the movie in Hertfordshire, England. She was photographed with her character's jet-black hair and black clothing as she sat in the passenger's seat of a Tesla. In July 2023, Ryder and Ortega were seen shooting what appeared to be a wedding scene. It was a chilly summer day in Hertfordshire — the You actress wore a sweater over her white tulle wedding gown and Ryder was bundled in a long puffer jacket.