Photo: Warner Bros/Everett
Beetlejuice is back in business.
PEOPLE confirmed Tuesday that a sequel to directorTim Burton’s 1988 film is scheduled to hit theaters on Sept. 6, 2024, 36 years after the original.
The news followsmultiple reportsin March thatWednesday’sJenna Ortegaisin talks to starin the Warner Bros. sequel as thedaughterofWinona Ryder’s Lydia, one of the main characters in the original.
Michael Keatonis also expected to return in the film as Beetlejuice, with production supposedly kicking off in London this summer, according toThe Hollywood Reporter.
Ryder costarred alongsideAlec Baldwin,Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Glenn Shadix and Keaton inBeetlejuice, which follows a shady spirit who helps a recently deceased couple drive out an unbearable family who moved into their home.
Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega, Tim Burton.Evans Vestal Ward/NBC via Getty, Cindy Ord/MG23/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue, Matt Winkelmeyer/FilmMagic/Getty
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As far back as 2011,Deadlinereported that producers David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith had signed with Warner Bros. and aimed to create aBeetlejuicefollow-up. Director Burton, as well as Keaton and Ryder,expressed interestin making a sequel at different times throughout the 2010s.
Back in 2017, Keaton expressed his belief that embarking on a sequel would create significant pressure on the production given audiences' fondness toward the original.
“I just think it’s like a little piece of art that you better get right if you ever do it again,” he said at the time. “Otherwise you just kind of don’t touch it.”
Amy Sussman/WireImage, GEFFEN FILM/WARNER BROTHERS/Alamy
In October, Davis, 67, told PEOPLE that while she had yet to be contacted about returning for a sequel, she “would of course like to revisit” that world again.
“I want to play every character I’ve ever played again,” Davis said at the time.
There is one issue, however, with revisiting her character of Barbara Maitland: She’s a ghost, along with her husband, Adam (Baldwin). “I have a feeling that ghosts don’t age,” she said. “How would they explain that they’re older?”
source: people.com
