Though Michael Keaton's titular Ghost with the Most was obviously the main attraction in Tim Burton's horror comedy classic, Beetlejuice, the protagonists were actually Adam and Barbara Maitland (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis).
The recently married couple are killed in a car accident in the first few minutes of the movie, and their displaced spirits wind up summoning Betelgeuse in an effort to drive the new owners of their house (Winona Ryder's Lydia Deetz and her family) away. Things don't exactly go according to plan, however.
Ultimately, Betelgeuse is banished, and the Deetzs and Maitlands agree to share the house.
Keaton, Ryder and Catherine O'Hara (who plays Lydia's mother) will reprise their roles for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but Baldwin and Davis won't be back. While speaking to ET, the latter explained why it wouldn't make sense for her character to return.
"No, I’m not. I’m not in the remake Oh, you were expecting that I would be? Yeah, no, you know what? Because my theory is that ghosts don’t age … Not that I have.”
“Our characters were stuck the way they looked when they died forever, so it’s been a while, it’s been a minute,” Davis went on. "I heard the trailer came out and somebody said they were crying, so I have to see the trailer.”
It's hard to argue with the logic. Betelgeuse is also a ghost, of course, but the bio-exorcists's freakish appearance allows Keaton to basically disappear behind the makeup.
It's a shame Davis won't be a part of the sequel, though, and it remains to be seen if Barbara and Adam get a mention (we'd assume their spirits are simply supposed to have moved on to the afterlife).
You can have another look at the teaser trailer below.
"After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return to the small Vermont town of Winter River. Paranormal empath, Lydia Deetz, begins to see the lecherous demon Beetlejuice, who haunted her as a teenager. His plans to finally marry Lydia are given extra urgency when his dead wife comes to life and begins to stalk the Afterlife hunting for him. Meanwhile, Lydia’s teenage daughter embarks on a romance with a local teen."
New cast members include Jenna Ortega as Lydia's daughter, Astrid, Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse's wife, Willem Dafoe as an afterlife cop, and Justin Theroux in an undisclosed role.
Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar penned the script.
Beetlejuice 2 is set to release in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024.