A premiere date is now on the board forBeetlejuice 2, the long-gestating sequel to Tim Burton’s cult classicBeetlejuice. Warner Bros. has officially announced that the movie will be released in theaters onSept. 6, 2024. Additionally, it’s been confirmed thatMichael Keatonwill return as the ghost with the most, as had been expected. It’s also been revealed that the rumors ofJenna Ortegajoining the cast were true, as theWednesdaystar has also signed on to star in the sequel. She will be playing the daughter of Winona Ryder’s character from the original film.
No additional details have yet been officially divulged, and it remains unclear if Ryder or any other stars from the firstBeetlejuicewill appear. The original film, which was directed by Burton and written by Micahel McDowell and Warren Skaaren, also starred Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Catherine O’Hara. Meanwhile, composer Danny Elfman has previously confirmed his involvement, recently noting how excited he was to get back on the set with Burton for theBeetlejuicefollow-up. He also teased Keaton’s return as Beetlejuice, noting how easy it would be for the actor to slip back into that role.
“That’s the beauty of theBeetlejuicemakeup,” Elfman said, perDeadline. “He already looked like he was 150 in the first one. It’s perfect, you know? Everybody else has to play the next generation, except for Michael. I mean, he’s still like really fit and really active and really on it. And with theBeetlejuicemakeup, I can’t even imagine it’s going to look like he’s changed practically at all.”
Related:Danny Elfman Is ‘Very Excited’ for Beetlejuice 2, Confirms Michael Keaton’s Return
Beetlejuice Is Finally Getting Its Sequel
Efforts to make a sequel to back to soon after the original was released in 1988. As far back as 1990, Burton was putting plans together for a sequel, intially putting together a story idea for something calledBeetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which would have obviously moved the characters to an entirely different setting. Beetlejuice on a surfboard sounds like loads of fun, but that version of the project fizzled out before ever starting production, for better or for worse.
The project has been slowly gestating ever since, with various rumors and rumblings coming up over the years, butBeetlejuice 2just couldn’t seem to make its way out of development hell. By 2011, the sequel came fairly close to happening when Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) was hired to write the script. That version also ended up collapsing before ever getting started, and Grahame-Smith later explained in 2021 how he just couldn’t quite nail the perfect screenplay that Burton and Co. were looking for.
“The reason that it’s so hard to get going is because so many people love it and because there are 10 million ways to get that sequel wrong and four ways to get it right,” he said, perCollider. “It’s such a very fine needle to thread that I certainly like didn’t get it there, on the script side. I didn’t thread the needle. There are things that were cool and some interesting ideas. I’ve certainly emotionally moved on from it and just said, ‘If it happens someday, it happens.'”
Now, it is finally happening, as made official by Warner Bros.Beetlejuice 2will premiere in movie theaters on Sept. 6, 2024. This news comes to us fromVariety.
