Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is already a hit ahead of its theatrical release as it got an immense amount of applause at the Venice Film Festival where it premiered for the first time. Many cast members including Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and Catherina O’Hara have returned to reprise their characters from the 1988 OG movie Beetlejuice. However, Tim Burton the director of both the films didn’t bring back Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ characters Adam Maitland and Barbara Maitland in the sequel for a reason.
In a recent conversation, Tim openly talked about why he chose to keep Alec and Geena out of the Beetlejuice sequel. Not only them, but Jeffery Jones also didn’t return to reprise his role as Charles Deetz. Baldwin and Davis played the deceased couple in the OG movie who couldn’t leave their house and tormented the new family – the Deetz family who moved in their place.
In a recent conversation, Tim openly talked about why he chose to keep Alec and Geena out of the Beetlejuice sequel. Not only them, but Jeffery Jones also didn’t return to reprise his role as Charles Deetz. Baldwin and Davis played the deceased couple in the OG movie who couldn’t leave their house and tormented the new family – the Deetz family who moved in their place.
The Deetz family – Charles Deetz (Jones), Delia Jones (Catherine O’Hara), and their daughter, Lydia Jones (Winona Ryder) were seen in the Beetlejuice movie. Michael Keaton played Beetlejuice the Spirit in the 1988 horror-comedy and is again reprising his role in the sequel. Now, why Alec and Geena were not included in Beetlejuice 2, Tim Burton revealed it in an interview with People.
He said, “I think the thing was for me I didn’t want to just tick any boxes. So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else.” Tim further continued, “A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time. That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter. And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn’t have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever.”
Beetlejuice 2 focuses on Lydia’s family and her relationship with her rebellious daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). As Delia and Lydia return to Winter River following a tragedy, the plot revolves around their story. The sequel will also see Justin Theroux playing Lydia’s fiance Rory. Along with them, Monica Belluci is joining the cast as Beetlejuice’s ex-wife Delores and William Dafoe is going to play a ghost detective, Wolf Jackson.
A few months back, when Geena Davis was asked whether she would be returning as Barbara Maitland or not, the actress told Entertainment Tonight that she wasn’t. Davis shared, “Oh, you were expecting that I would be? Yeah, no, you know what? Because my theory is that ghosts don’t age. Not that I have. Our characters were stuck the way they looked when they died forever, so it’s been a while. It’s been a minute.”
Well, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is scheduled to be released on September 6, 2024. But let us know your thoughts regarding Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin not returning for the sequel.
