Back in the spring of 1988, an odd little horror comedy titled Beetlejuice made its way into theaters, where it collected a respectable sum of money and earned pretty positive reviews, eventually finding itself showing on almost every cable TV channel at least once a week throughout October.
An entertaining mix of sharp, clever writing and strange horror, it propelled Michael Keaton to stardom and became a firm classic of the genre, still finding much love from fans to this day who continue to call for a sequel. Director Tim Burton has been hesitant about making one, saying back in the spring that it probably wouldn’t happen, but folks haven’t given up hope just yet.
In fact, just the other week, composer Danny Elfman hinted that a follow-up might still come to fruition, with Keaton said to be interested in returning to the role. Following this, We Got This Covered reached out to some industry insiders to see if there was any sort of update they could provide on the project. And while it sounds like it’s still early days, our sources – the same ones who said Bill Murray was returning for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a Scream reboot is in the works and the lead characters in the aforementioned Afterlife would be young teens, all of which turned out to be true – have informed us that Warner Bros. is indeed moving forward with a Beetlejuice 2.
It’s unclear if the project is actively in development right now or if it’s just something they intend on getting to in the near future, but our sources say it’s definitely happening and Michael Keaton is “expected to return.” Furthermore, we’re told that WB would like Burton and Ryder back, too, but as with Keaton, it doesn’t sound like they’re locked in just yet.
Again, it’s still too early for anything to be finalized, but the intention certainly seems to be to get the original team back on board. And given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who also told us Disney was developing a new Dragon Ball movie, which trusted insider Daniel RPK recently corroborated, we have no reason to doubt it.
Of course, there are those who might feel that Tim Burton’s cult classic should be left alone, and any sort of sequel would just be treading on hallowed ground. That might be true, but Keaton has always stated that if he and Burton were to return to the property for another movie, it would have to honor the wacky spirit of the original Beetlejuice. And though it’s still too early to tell if this follow-up will do that, we certainly remain hopeful. Especially if the original team is all coming back.
