The juice is loose – again. Nearly three decades after audiences traveled to Winter River, with a reroute to the Neitherworld, Beetlejuice is getting ready to haunt a new generation when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the follow-up to the 1988 comedy-horror classic, hits theaters this September, with Warner Bros. giving fans a glimpse of the film with the release of eight character posters.
Reuniting Tim Burton with Michael Keaton, who reprises his role as the trickster and mischievous ghost, the upcoming sequel also brings back Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara as Lydia Deetz and Delia Deetz. A cast of new characters – Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, and Justin Theroux – join them as Beetlejuice is once again summoned.
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Burton directs Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from a script written by Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg, Michael McDowel, Mike Vukadinovich, and Larry Wilson. The film hits theaters on Sept. 6. Keep scrolling to see the character posters.
Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice
The upcoming film will see Keaton stepping back into the shoes of the nefarious poltergeist he first portrayed in the 1988 classic. The actor told PEOPLE back in September that he was initially “hesitant and cautious” to revisit the film, as he “thought, ‘You got to get this right. Otherwise, just don’t do it. Let’s just go on with our lives and do other things.” However, once he and Burton “said, ‘Okay, let’s just go for it. Let’s just see if we can do it, if we can pull this off,”‘ Keaton told the outlet his work on the sequel was “the most fun I’ve had on set in a long time.”
“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,” he told the outlet. “The one thing that he 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. It’s the most exciting thing. When you get to do that again after years of standing in front of a giant screen, pretending somebody’s across the way from you, this is just enormous fun.”
Catherin O’Hara as Delia Deetz
Returning alongside Keaton is O’Hara, who starred in the original film as Delia Deetz, the wife of Jeffrey Jones’ Charles Deetz, who in the sequel has died, and Lydia’s stepmother. In one of the most memorable moments from the ’88 classic, O’Hara’s character and her dinner guests become possessed by ghosts, singing and dancing to “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” by Harry Belafonte.
Appearing on the Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast in March, the actress said that Burton “really wanted to get the old feeling back” with the sequel. She also confirmed that “Day-O” is in the new movie.
Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz
After overcoming Beetlejuice in the ’80s, Ryder will once again come fact-to-face with the trickster spirit as she reprises her role as Lydia. Brought back to Winter River following the death of her father, Lydia is “still haunted by Beetlejuice,” per an official synopsis, and her “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.”
Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz
Jenna Ortega’s star is continuing to grow. After stepping into the Addams Family franchise when she took on the role of Morticia and Gomez’s teenage daughter in Netflix’s Wednesday and making a name for herself as one of the leads in the two most recent Scream installments, Ortega is jumping into Beetlejuice as Astrid, Lydia’s teenage daughter who utters Beetlejuice’s name three times.
“She’s weird, but in a different way and not in the way you’d assume… I wouldn’t say she’s bright and sunny at all,” Ortega, 21, told Vanity Fair in February. “The relationship between Lydia and Astrid, my character, is very important. And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again.”
Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson
Dafoe joins Beetlejuice as dead “B-movie action star,” the actor revealed to Variety. According to Dafoe, his character is “a police officer in the afterlife, so I’m a dead person. And in life I was a B-movie action star, but I had an accident and that’s what sent me to the other side. But because of my skills, I became a detective character in the afterlife.”
Justin Theroux as Rory
The Leftover stars Justin Theroux stars as Rory in the upcoming movie. His character has made appearances in both the teaser trailer released in March and the May full-length trailer, but details about the character are mostly being kept under wraps.
Monica Bellucci as Delores
Bellucci joins the cast of the long-awaited Beetlejuice 2 as Beetlejuice’s wife. The trailer for the film gave fans their first-look at Bellucci in-character, showing the actress in a black gown and sporting stitches across her skin as she asked, “where is Beetlejuice?”
Bob as a Shrinker
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is slated to hit theaters on Sept. 6. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest updates!
