It looks like Beetlejuice 2 could finally end up happening. On Monday, it was reported by The Ankler that the long-rumored sequel has finally taken a step forward with Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment, producing the feature. According to the report, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder are both expected to reprise their respective role as Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz. If given the green light by Warner Bros., the potential sequel could start filming as early as this summer which would likely mean a 2023 release date.
Although the studio hasn't signed off on this project, it seems like a pretty easy sell if the key players are involved. Michael Keaton is back at the forefront of the mainstream with his exciting reprisal of his Batman role in The Flash and Batgirl. Having Ryder back on board as well would only sweeten the deal. The big question is if Tim Burton would also be coming back to hop into the director's chair after helming the original movie. In 2019, the director cast doubt on the sequel ever really happening, but he's also said he'd be open to doing the film under the right circumstances.
Burton directed Beetlejuice using a screenplay written by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren based on a story by McDowell and Larry Wilson. Along with Keaton and Ryder, the film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davi, Catherina O'Hara, and Jeffrey Jones. It follows a recently deceased couple (Baldwin and Davis) as they become ghosts haunting their former home, coming into contact with a "bio-exorcist" from the Netherworld named Betelgeuse (Keaton) to scare away the house's new inhabitants.
Beetlejuice 2 Has Spent Decades in Development Hell
Tim Burton has had plans to make Beetlejuice 2 for more than 30 years. As far back as 1990, he was working on a potential sequel called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, imagining the character in an entirely new environment. Burton later lost touch with the film, leading to Kevin Smith getting the offer to direct from Warner Bros. in 1996, but he turned it down to focus on a Superman film that also died in development hell.
For better or for worse, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian wasn't meant to be, that that wasn't the end of the line for Beetlejuice 2. Seth Grahame-Smith was brought in to write and produce a sequel in 2011, going so far as to have talks with Keaton about the film's creative vision. That version of Beetlejuice 2 was ill-fated as well.
"It's funny, when I had met with Tim about it last, and we're talking about five years ago at this point, 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," Grahame-Smith said last year of why the project collapsed. "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.'"
The filmmaker added, "Yeah. Michael Keaton is just as relevant as ever and Tim Burton is just as relevant as ever, but you have to have both of those people excited about something to do it. I couldn't get it there personally, as a writer, but maybe somebody else can."
That day may finally arrive with Brad Pitt's help. Now we just have to wait and see if Warner Bros. gives this incarnation of Beetlejuice 2 the green light.