Someone actually said “Beetlejuice” three times because the long-in-the-works sequel, Beetlejuice 2, actually has a release date and is actually going to be coming to theaters. Warner Bros. has set a release date of September 6, 2024, giving us only a little over a year to finally see Tim Burton and Michael Keaton team back up on a sequel that’s been percolating since the original released 35 years ago.
Is it really truly happening? Well, a release date is a great sign, but an even better one is that Deadline reports that shooting is officially starting tomorrow in London, meaning that barring a complete and total catastrophe of a shoot, Beetlejuice 2 will actually come out. Mike Vukadinovich wrote the script. There’s very little known about the sequel itself aside from the fact that Keaton and Burton are returning for it, and they will be joined by everyone’s favorite choice for goth characters now, Jenna Ortega. There’s no word if any of the other cast are coming back, but there’s no reason that Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Jones, and Catherine O’Hara couldn’t make appearances of some sort given the supernatural nature of the story.
The real question is if anyone is excited about Beetlejuice anymore or if this grab at nostalgia will fall flat. Keaton is, of course, already banking on nostalgia with his return as Batman (anther Burton-directed role) in The Flash, but that’s Batman. Beetlejuice hasn’t exactly been relevant for a very long time even if you count the Saturday morning cartoon that at least kept him in the spotlight for a certain section of the Millennial population.
At least WB is putting the film in a strong release slot for horror. The studio has succeeded there with genre fare with both The Nun and It, but at the moment the date is also home to Marvel’s Blade reboot, which could see plenty of audience overlap. That film, however, is currently delayed thanks to the writers strike, so it may not land then anyway.
