Winona Ryder wakes Beetlejuice again in the first teaser for the sequel
Lydia Deetz is in full mourning, like her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and her mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara).
Someone is dead, at the heart of these first images of BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice. But who ? Perhaps Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones), the father of the first opus released in 1988 at the cinema? Asked by Entertainment Weekly about this first teaser for the sequel, which will arrive in September 2024 on the big screen, Tim Burton does not want to confirm anything at the moment. “We'll see !”he replies, before recounting how much he was marked by the return of Michael Keaton, still so eager in the role of the bio-exorcist.
“He came back in the costume and it was almost scary to see him so transformed, especially for someone who initially wasn't even that excited about it. (to the idea of playing Beetlejuice in the first opus, editor's note). Seeing the whole cast come back was a beautiful thing for me, but for him it was special, almost as if he had been possessed by a demon.”
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Delia (Catherine O'Hara) is back, in full mourning alongside her daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) and her granddaughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), but also Rory, played by Justin Theroux. A new character in the vein of Otho (Glenn Shadix, died in 2010)? Burton doesn't say more there either, simply explaining that he “so identified with the character of Lydia” that he wanted to continue to explore the fate of the women of the Deetz family.
“As you go through the years, you follow your own path, you go from the coolness of adolescence to the more boring adult life, explains the American filmmaker. Coming back to them made the film more moving, and it gave it a good foundation. That’s what really made me want to come back.”
That and the opportunity to produce several stop-motion sequences, with decorative elements “Hard” rather than 100% digital. “This film needed us to go back to basics, he considers. Let us focus on quality, handmade objects. It all invigorated me, reminded me why I loved making these films.”
Even if the teaser is short and still keeps plenty of secret elements (no trace of the new characters played by Willem Dafoe or Monica Bellucci, no sand monster or scenes in the world of the dead), another thing is certain when seeing these first images of Beetlejuice2 : everything is done to awaken the nostalgia of fans of the first part. We find the same Gothic atmosphere, the famous model of the Maitland attic, the air of “Day O” (reinterpreted by a choir)… And when the protagonist wakes up, under Lydia's frightened gaze, he looks more cruel than ever, almost 40 years later!
Co-written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Wednesday) from a script by Seth Graham Smith (Dark Shadows), BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice will be released in theaters on September 11.
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