Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy, is finally coming to theaters on September 6th, 2024, after years of development.
The film, which reunites Burton with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara, also unveils its new title on a poster that pays homage to the original film.
The poster was released by Warner Bros. on February 1st and shows a pair of hands holding a ticket number, as seen in the afterlife waiting room scene from the first film. The ticket number displays the film’s release date while the poster reads, “The wait is almost over.”
The poster also features the film’s logo, which is a stylized version of the name Beetlejuice, repeated twice, in reference to the rule that the ghost with the most can be summoned or banished by saying his name three times.
The film’s title, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, is a clever and catchy way to indicate that this is the second installment of the franchise, as well as a nod to the film’s premise and humor. It also suggests that the film will have more of the same elements that made the first film a cult classic, such as the quirky and colorful characters, the dark and whimsical style, and the witty and irreverent dialogue.
The film’s plot is still largely unknown, but it is expected to follow the events of the first film, which starred Keaton as Beetlejuice, a mischievous and obnoxious ghost who offers to help a recently deceased couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), haunt the new owners of their house, the Deetz family, consisting of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), Delia (O’Hara), and Lydia (Ryder).
However, Beetlejuice has ulterior motives, and tries to marry Lydia in order to escape his purgatory. The film will also introduce new characters, played by Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci.
Ortega, who starred in Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday, will play the daughter of Lydia, who inherits her mother’s ability to see and communicate with the dead. Dafoe will play a police officer in the afterlife, who was formerly a B-movie action star. Theroux will play a rival ghost to Beetlejuice, who wants to take over his business. Bellucci will play a mysterious and seductive figure, who has a connection to Beetlejuice’s past.
The Beetlejuice sequel is directed by Burton, who also helmed the first film, and co-written by Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg, who previously worked with Burton on Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
