After 36 years, we’ve finally gotten the sequel to Beetlejuice. Directed by Tim Burtonfrom a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. It was released September 6th, 2024. And with it we see the return of Winona Ryder playing Lydia Deetz, Catherine O’hara as Delia Deetz, and Micheal Keaton as Beetlejuice. Along with the new cast members, Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz, Justin Theroux as Rory, Monica Bellucci as Delores, Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson, Arthur Conti as Jeremy Frazier, Burn Gorman as Father Damien, Amy Nuttall as local real estate agent Jane Butterfield Jr., Santiago Cabrera as Father Damien, Danny Devito as an afterlife janitor, Nick Kellington as Bob, and Mark Heenhan (Physical) and Charlie Hopkinson (Voice) as Charles Deetz. Jeffrey Jones did not return to play Charles Deetz due to his legal controversies.
After the success of the first Beetlejuice, plans for a second release were announced by The Geffen Film Company, the original producers, but never began production until 2011 when Warner Bros. Pictures hired Seth Grahame-Smith to pitch the story which went through numerous revisions until 2019 when it was shelved early on and eventually got revived three years later. Tim Burton co-produced the film with Brad Pitt’s studio Plan B Entertainment and the casting continued on until early 2023.
The official title was released in February 2024, and during post production, the editing was handled by Jay Prychidny and the musical score was composed by Danny Elfman, who often composed the scores for Burton’s other films.
The overall plot for the movie, without spoiling it, is that after Lydia Deetz grew up she started hosting a supernatural talk show called “Ghost House”, produced by her boyfriend Rory, but while taping a segment she saw visions of Betelgeuse, the ghost who haunted her family 36 years ago. Betelgeuse himself stays in the afterlife, but begins to fear for his life when his murderous Ex-wife reappears. And when Rory proposes to Lydia at Charles’ remembrance party, Astrid runs off and meets a brief love interest, a boy named Jeremy Frazier, who isn’t who he seems to be.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28th, 2024 and was theatrically released overseas on September 4th, 2024, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures two days later. So far the film has received generally good reviews from critics and grossed $167 million worldwide on a $100 million budget.
When asked about a potential third film, Burton said “Let’s do the math…it took me 35 years to do this, so I’ll be over 100. But I guess it’s possible with the advent of science these days, but I don’t think so.” Overall I think this was a great movie, but it was not as good as the original.
