As first rumored two months ago on The Hot Mic podcast, Beetlejuice 2 is officially a go, with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder reprising their roles under the direction of Tim Burton. This time around, they’ll be joined by Jenna Ortega, who will play Ryder’s daughter, as well as Justin Theroux, whose role is being kept under wraps.
When I first heard that the long-gestating sequel was finally coming together at Warner Bros., I was told that Catherine O’Hara would also be back as Ryder’s mother — thanks to Schitt’s Creek, she’s as hot as she was back in the early ’90s during the Home Alone days — though the studio has yet to confirm her involvement.
Beetlejuice 2 will start production this week in the UK, and Warner Bros. will release the sequel in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024 — which means that Marvel’s Blade, which just shuttered pre-production due to the Writers Strike, is all but guaranteed to move off that date.
Released in 1988, the original movie was a supernatural comedy about a deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) whose spirits are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, forcing them to hire a malicious spirit (i.e. Beetlejuice) to drive them out. The film grossed $75 million at the domestic box office and led to Keaton and Burton’s reunion the following year on Batman.
Ortega is coming off the staggering success of Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday, and she recently starred in the hit horror movies Scream VI and X. She has four films in the can — Brian Helgeland‘s crime thriller Finestkind starring Ben Foster and Tommy Lee Jones; the Seth Rogen–Evan Goldberg production Miller’s Girl, which pairs her with Martin Freeman; the romantic drama Winter Spring Summer or Fall; and an untitled project from Waves director Trey Edward Shults that also stars The Weeknd and Barry Keoghan, and which Ortega also executive produced. She’s represented by CAA and Gilbertson Entertainment.
Theroux is coming off the Apple TV+ series The Mosquito Coast, and he currently stars opposite Woody Harrelson in the HBO limited series White House Plumbers. I maintain that he needs to be cast in a badass crime movie or series, as he can be a force to be reckoned with no matter the size of the screen. Theroux is repped by CAA and Lighthouse Management and Media, and Giant Freakin Robot broke the news of his casting in Beetlejuice 2.
Meanwhile, Keaton will soon be seen in the long-awaited DC movie The Flash, while Ryder is due to shoot the final season of Stranger Things after the Writers Strike, which has already delayed production on Netflix’s prized series.
