Beetlejuice 2: Monica Bellucci to star alongside Keaton, Ortega, and Theroux for the long-awaited Tim Burton sequel

The Ghost with the Most, Beetlejuice, is finally getting a sequel to his 1988 classic, and Italian actress Monica Bellucci (The Matrix Revolutions, Shoot’ Em Up) is in talks to join the cast. Cameras will roll later this month on Beetlejuice 2, with Michael Keaton, Catharine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, and Justin Theroux also starring.

Beetlejuice 2 haunts theaters on September 6, 2024, with Ortega playing Lydia Deetz’s daughter. Tim Burton directs from a script by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners of Netflix’s Wednesday series. Filming is going down this summer in London. Burton’s longtime collaborator, Danny Elfman, provides the score. Brad Pitt’s Plan B banner is producing the sequel.

Notoriously, Beetlejuice 2 was in limbo for years. Burton would only make the film if Keaton agreed to return, and Ryder would only play Lydia if Burton and Keaton were on board. With all three returning, work on the long-awaited sequel is underway. Bellucci recently starred alongside Toni Collette in Catherine Hardwicke’s crime comedy Mafia Mamma. Bellucci’s other acting credits include The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, She Hate Me, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Spectre, and more.

Elfman recently spoke with Deadline about returning to the afterlife for Beetlejuice 2, saying he can’t wait to get reacquainted with the characters of Burton’s strange world of ghouls, ghosts, and prankster poltergeists.

“I love being a fly on the wall when he’s shooting. I’ll be doing that in a couple of months, as you may know, on another Tim Burton project,” Danny Elfman said of Beetlejuice 2. “That is very exciting, to return to that world.” He added that someone recently asked him if Michael Keaton could step back into Beetlejuice 35 years after the original movie’s release. “I said, ‘He’s not even going to look that much different. That’s the beauty of the Beetlejuice makeup. He already looked like he was 150 in the first one,'” Elfman explained. “It’s perfect, you know? Everybody else has to play the next generation, except for Michael. I mean, he’s still like really fit and really active and really on it. And with the Beetlejuice makeup, I can’t even imagine it’s going to look like he’s changed practically at all. So, I can’t wait for that.”

Are you excited about Beetlejuice 2? How do you think the cast is shaping up? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.