Keaton promises Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will feel like original… but will it?

Last Updated on February 21, 2024

It’s showtime! OK, so we have until the summer to find out what Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has in store, but Michael Keaton is ready for the world to see what the sequel has going for it. As he put it, the production was less “strange and unusual” than one of the most fun he’s had in a while.

Speaking with People, Michael Keaton hyped the production of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by saying, “It’s the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time…On one hand, you’d go, ‘Well, of course it’s the most fun. It looks like fun.’ As you know, it doesn’t always work like that.” Fortunately, it has worked out in Keaton’s favor; and it may work out for viewers, too, as the filmmakers set out to capture so much of what made the first Beetlejuice – which had some of the most inventive practical effects and makeup of any ‘80s movie – so enduring. “The one thing that [director Tim Burton] and I decided on early, early, early on from the beginning, if we ever did it again, I was totally not interested in doing something where there was too much technology…It had to feel handmade…What made it fun was watching somebody in the corner actually holding something up for you, to watch everybody in the shrunken head room and say, ‘Those are people under there, operating these things, trying to get it right.’”

This “back to basics” approach has been teased before, but Keaton’s particular enthusiasm over Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s practical effects gives further evidence that, while being in front of a green screen can present limitless cinematic possibilities, it’s tough to top the authenticity and draw of doing things by hand.

As we all know, a Beetlejuice sequel has been in the works for well over 30 years, with Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian the original plan. The ghost with the most may not be catching any gnarly waves this time around, but instead will focus on…actually, we don’t really know! Plot details have been thin for the follow-up, but we do know that it does lean heavily into the family aspect. This makes sense, as Jenna Ortega will be playing Lydia Deetz’s (Winona Ryder) daughter and Beetlejuice (Keaton, of course) is now officially a married man to Monica Bellucci’s character.

Filming wrapped in November, while Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is currently slated for a September 6th release.

Do you think Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will live up to the original? Give us your predictions below!