Willem Dafoe Cast in ‘Beetlejuice 2’

With Tim Burton directing the long-anticipated follow-up to his 1988 cult hit, the cast is shaping up as a mixture of returning cast (such as Michael Keaton) and new faces.

Willem Dafoe stars as Nemo in director Vasilis Katsoupis' 'Inside,' a Focus Features release. Credit: Wolfgang Ennenbach / Focus Features.

As the cameras continue to roll in the UK under the direction of Beetlejuice’ is adding to its cast.

So far, the movie’s ensemble has been a mix of returning cast from the original movie and some new additions as the story moves forward into the present day.

The original, as you may know, saw a couple (Michael Keaton) promises to rid them of the frustrating new dwellers, but his chaotic style ends up threatening everyone.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

"The ghost with the most is back."

PG-131 hr 45 min Sep 6th, 2024

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Who is starring in ‘Beetlejuice 2’?

Keaton and Ryder are back alongside new recruits.

And Willem Dafoe is ing them to play a ghostly police officer, according to Giant Freakin’ Robot.

Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse in 1988's 'Beetlejuice.'

The ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel so far

1988’s ‘Beetlejuice’ saw the spirits of a deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) harassed by an unbearable family (Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz, Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz and Ryder as Charles’ daughter, along with various assistants and hangers-on) that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit (Keaton’s Betelgeuse, which is how his name is spelled) to drive them out.

But when Betelgeuse’s malicious chaos becomes too much, the ghostly couple team up with Lydia to try and stop him. Famously, he’s summoned by saying his name three times.

Burton enjoyed making ‘Beetlejuice’ enough that in 1990 hired Jonathan Gems to write a sequel called ‘Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian’, which would have seen the Deetz’ head to the island nation to open a resort, only to build on the burial ground of an ancient Hawaiian Kahuna. The spirit comes back from the afterlife to cause trouble, and Betelgeuse’s services are once more reluctantly required.

The idea languished in development for nearly a decade, going through different scripts and potential writers (including ‘Superman Lives’), before ending its limbo status in apparent failure around 1997.

Yet after years of official silence, Warner Bros. decided to try again, hiring Seth Grahame-Smith to write a script that would set the story in contemporary times with Ryder and Burton back. But even that didn’t turn into anything, despite Mike Vukadinovich re-writing the script.

The current version boasts a script from ‘Wednesday’ creators and Miles Millar.

‘Beetlejuice 2’ should be in theaters on September 6th, 2024.