As Beetlejuice 2 prepares its long-awaited production, news comes that Monica Bellucci (Mafia Mamma), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Justin Theroux (White House Plumbers) are the latest to join Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega in the sequel.
Bellucci will reportedly play the wife of Keaton’s Betelgeuse, with Dafoe said to portray “a law enforcement officer in the afterlife”. Theroux’s role remains under wraps for the time being.
Beetlejuice 2 already has a script in place written by Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which will reunite them with executive producer Tim Burton and star Jenna Ortega. Plot details are unknown, but it will revolve around Ortega who will play the daughter of the original film’s Lydia (Winona Ryder), who is also returning for the sequel.
Beetlejuice was released in 1988 and became a box office hit. It followed a recently deceased couple discovering their way around the afterlife, but being stuck in their home for the next 100 years as a new family move in. They hire the foul-mouthed Betelgeuse, whose name must be said three times for him to appear, to haunt the family out of their home, but get much more than they bargained for with Beetlejuice’s rogue and vile methods.
The film is usually named as one of Burton’s best films and still has a strong following 30+ years later. Plans for the sequel have been various stages of development hell over the years, but this time Beetlejuice’s name has been said three times successfully.
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