It's showtime!
Cameras began rolling on Tim Burton's long-awaited Bettlejuice 2 back in July, and after a production hiatus due to the Hollywood strikes, filming has now resumed on the long-awaited legacy sequel to the 1988 fantasy/horror comedy.
We got a glimpse of one returning star, Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), as Lydia Deetz in the initial batch of set photos that were shared online earlier this year, and we now have a first look at Michael Keaton as the titular Bio-Exorcist.
We're not exactly sure where the image originated, but it's believed to have leaked online after being cropped from a shot taken from a set monitor. It shows Betelgeuse (which how the character's name is actually spelled) injecting someone (possibly Justin Theroux's character) in the neck with truth serum.
Keaton spoke about returning as the Ghost With the Most in a recent interview with Empire.
"Beetlejuice is the most f--kin’ fun you can have working. It’s so fun, it’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie," he says. "There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move."
"[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody," he continued. "I said, ‘if it happens, first of all, we’ve both said we’re doing it many times. We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. F--kin’ great. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long."
Click here to check out the image.
Scream and Wednesday star Jenna Ortega is also on board as Lydia's daughter, Astrid, with Catherine O'Hara set to reprise her role as her mother, Delia Deetz. New cast members include Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse's wife, and Willem Dafoe as an afterlife cop.
Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar penned the script.
Beetlejuice 2 is set to release in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024.
"After Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) die in a car accident, they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house," reads the original movie's synopsis. "When the unbearable Deetzes (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and teen daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) buy the home, the Maitlands attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a rambunctious spirit whose "help" quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia."