It’s showtime: The long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice is about to land on screens, and the first teaser is as eerie and eccentric (and strange and unusual) as we could’ve hoped for. Released on March 21, it opens with a shot of franchise newcomer Jenna Ortega cycling swiftly past Miss Shannon’s School for Girls to the tune of—what else?—a children’s choir singing “Day-O.” Cue glimpses of Ortega standing beside returning favorites Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara; and the Wednesday star entering the attic and uncovering the miniature model of Winter River. It soon splits open and, to Ryder’s horror, Michael Keaton’s scraggly-haired, deathly pale, striped-suit-wearing Beetlejuice emerges from within it. “The juice is loose,” he says, grinning.
Titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the forthcoming Tim Burton-directed release is poised to hit cinemas on September 6, 2024. The log line reads: “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.”
Alongside Keaton, O’Hara and Ryder are, of course, reprising their original roles as Delia and Lydia Deetz, while Ortega takes the part of the latter’s willful offspring. They’ll be joined by Monica Bellucci—as Beetlejuice’s wife, no less—and Willem Dafoe as a “police officer in the afterlife and former B-movie action star,” as well as Justin Theroux, Game of Thrones’s Burn Gorman, and House of the Dragon’s Arthur Conti. Meanwhile, the screenplay comes courtesy of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of Wednesday.
It’s taken an age to get the gang back together—the follow-up film has long been gestating, and after production finally began, it was paused over the summer of 2023 as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, only two additional days of filming remained, meaning it could wrap quickly after work resumed.
And, by all accounts, it should be worth the wait: “I really enjoyed it,” Burton told The Independent last fall, of making the film. “I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”
Keaton echoed this in an interview with People magazine, saying, “The one thing that [Tim] and I decided on early on [was that] if we ever did it again, I was totally not interested in doing something where there was too much technology. It had to feel handmade. It’s the most exciting thing. When you get to do that again after years of standing in front of a giant screen, pretending somebody’s across the way from you, this is just enormous fun… the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time.” It is also, he revealed, surprisingly emotional. In an interview on The Jess Cagle Show, he added: “The [original] was so fun and exciting visually. [The sequel is] all that but really beautiful and interestingly emotional here and there. I wasn’t ready for that.”
And as for Ortega? “She’s weird, but in a different way [from her mother] and not in the way you’d assume, I would say,” she said of Astrid to Vanity Fair in February. “The relationship between Lydia and my character is very important. And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again. I wouldn’t say [Astrid’s] bright and sunny at all. She doesn’t go to the opposite end of the spectrum [as Lydia], but any kid who becomes a teenager wants to be removed from their parents. I think they instantly just fight whatever it is that their parent loves. I’m not wearing pink and a cheerleader, but I am a little bit against my mom’s history or past. We butt heads quite a bit. For me, Lydia is the coolest ever. So then to play her daughter and also have to be like, ‘Mom…,’ and roll your eyes was definitely more challenging for me as an actor, but super fun to play.”
It’s also likely, given the title of the new film and the Beetlejuice universe’s rule of three, that a third installment, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, will be on its way soon after. And why not? Thirty-six years later, he’s still the ghost with the most.