Warner Bros. has announced Beetlejuice 2 will debut on September 6, 2024, with Jenna Ortega in a starring role. The upcoming release, scripted by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, will be the long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 film that starred Michael Keaton as a prank-happy poltergeist. Over the years, Seth Grahame-Smith and Daniel Waters were engaged to write sequels, but their attempts proved fruitless.
Ortega, who most recently starred in Netflix’s Wednesday, will reportedly play the role of the daughter of Lydia Deetz, a character that Winona Ryder had played in the earlier film. The cast for that 1988 version also included Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, and Catherine O’Hara.
Ortega was quoted in The Hollywood Reporter about her pleasure in working with Burton: “It’s been quite an insane experience,” she said. “I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with an iconic director who just so happens to be one of the sweetest directors I’ve worked with, and also the most detail-oriented.”
The 1988 comedy-horror movie, which also inspired a stage musical and an animated series. grossed $70+ million on a $15 million budget. It depicted the antics of a deceased couple that teams up with Beetlejuice, a devious “bio-exorcist” from the Netherworld to haunt the new inhabitants of their former home. In an earlier version of the script, the playful poltergeist was named “Betelguese” after the star in a faraway galaxy.
The original Beetlejuice film was generally well-received by critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it a “farce for out time” though his Times colleague Janet Maislin panned it as a film that “only occasionally manages something marginally funny.” At the 61st Academy Awards, however, Beetlejuice won an Oscar for Best Makeup.
Filming for Beetlejuice 2 is scheduled to start in London this week. The Broadway show that it spawned closed in January.
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Jenna Ortega’s “Beetlejuice 2” is officially happening in 2024
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