Things are about to get even more strange and unusual, from the looks of the utterly fun and unhinged first trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Tim Burton directs the returning Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Winona Rider as Lydia Deetz, and Catherine O’Hara as her step mom, Delia—plus Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid.
After a death in the Deetz family, their old pal Beetlejuice re-enters the picture—prompting a new chain of afterlife hijinks. Check out the trailer to see it all unfold.
It’s fantastic to see Keaton’s undead agent of chaos back in action—and Burton’s wacky signature style (stop-motion action, yay!), which we’ve been missing. His last feature film was 2019’s Dumbo, though of course he had the Ortega-starring hit Netflix series Wednesday in 2022. Speaking of which, it’s exciting to see Ortega fit right in with the Beetlejuice bunch; I hope her character takes a similar journey to what her mother once experienced in this new tale of existential crisis after death.
Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux round out the ensemble, while it remains to be seen if any other Beetlejuice cast members will be reprising their roles in any way. We’re hoping for at least a cameo from Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis), though perhaps she and Adam (Alec Baldwin) found afterlife peace once they fulfilled their unfinished business of parenting through Lydia.
Official plot from Warner Bros: “After an unexpected family tragedy, 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.”
Burton returns to direct from a screenplay by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (Wednesday), story by Gough & Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith (The LEGO Batman Movie), based on the characters created by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in theaters on September 6.
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