Beetlejuice 2: Willem Dafoe Has Joined The Cast As Production Starts

At one point, during the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon, a whole bunch of logos for movies that were coming out well after 2023 were shown. This is very common and sometimes can be a soft launch for movies that are 90% greenlit, but they are just waiting for the ink to dry on the final contract. Two of the films that showed up included a fourth entry in The Conjuring franchise and a sequel to Beetlejuice. There have been false starts for a Beetlejuice 2 for years, but it seems that this might not be one of those.

Beetlejuice 2 Becomes A Reality [Finally]

On May 9th, it was announced that Beetlejuice 2 had snagged a September 6, 2024, release date. Michael Keaton is set to return to the title role, new goth queen Jenna Ortega has been cast as the daughter of Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder in the 1988 original, and Justin Theroux has also joined the cast in an unknown role. On May 11th, we learned that Monica Bellucci was in talks to join the cast, with Tim Burton returning to direct and Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara also returning.

We got another new cast member today, along with the announcement that production has started. So this one is much further along than we thought it might be. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Willem Dafoe has joined the cast in a role that is being described as “a law enforcement officer in the afterlife.” We have also learned that this completed script was written by Al Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of Wednesday. 

Unlike Blade, which shares this release date, it seems that Beetlejuice 2 was far enough along that they could start filming. Blade was still in pre-production, and they were still working on the script enough that they had to shut down due to the strike. It’s also unclear where Beetlejuice 2 started filming, so they could avoid the picket line, and we can guess they must be out of the country somewhere. Regarding who will keep this release date, the money is on Beetlejuice 2 since Marvel is stuck until the strike ends. Maybe we should pay writers to end it.