Beetlejuice is back! Batman director Tim Burton and screen icon Michael Keaton are reuniting for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to Burton's award-winning Beetlejuice, and the first teaser trailer has now found its way online courtesy of FearHQ.com.
Clocking in at just over a minute, it largely focuses on Jenna Ortega before the beloved "bio-exorcist" face returns and declares, "The juice is loose!" It was fun seeing Keaton suit up as Batman again in The Flash last year, but even that arguably pales in comparison to seeing this particular transformation.
After an unexpected family tragedy, the movie sees three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened.
With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.
Filmmaker Tim Burton recently caught up with Entertainment Weekly and, somewhat unsurprisingly, refused to share any specific story details. He did at least say that seeing Keaton don his classic costume and makeup again was a "weird out-of-body experience."
"He just got back into it," the director added. "It was kind of scary for somebody who was maybe not that overly interested in doing it. It was such a beautiful thing for me to see all the cast, but he, sort of like demon possession, just went right back into it."
As for why now was the right time to revisit Beetlejuice for a sequel, Burton said, "Unless it felt right, he had no burning desire to do it," the director recalls. "I think we all felt the same way. It only made sense if it had an emotional hook."
Keaton returns to his iconic role alongside Oscar nominee Winona Ryder (Stranger Things) as Lydia Deetz and two-time Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt$ Creek) as Delia Deetz, with new cast members Justin Theroux (The Leftovers), Monica Bellucci (Spectre), Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon) in his feature film debut, with Emmy nominee Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, and Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (Poor Things).
Burton directs from a screenplay by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (Wednesday), with a story by Gough & Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith (The LEGO Batman Movie), based on characters created by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson.
Burton’s creatives behind the scenes include director of photography Haris Zambarloukos (Murder on the Orient Express), production designer Mark Scruton (Wednesday), editor Jay Prychidny (Wednesday), costume designer Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland), Oscar-winning creature effects and special makeup FX creative supervisor Neal Scanlan (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), composer Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas), and hair and makeup designer Christine Blundell (Topsy-Turvy).
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be released in theaters and IMAX on September 6, 2024.