Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) | First Teaser Dropped

Above photo from IMDb.

Greetings everyone, and welcome to another spontaneous teaser trailer reaction, this time for the long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, Beetlejuice. While I had heard of this sequel being in production, and had seen the pictures of Michael Keaton in full make-up, I didn’t realize that the teaser dropped yesterday until my good friend Mike Ladano informed me, in the past hour.

Unlike the first teaser to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, this one is brief and gives away very little in terms of plot. We see familiar shots of the same small town featured in the first film, with the all-girls school and the covered bridge, then we see Lydia and Delia Deetz (Wynona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara) accompanied by a young girl who I can only assume is Lydia’s daughter (Jenna Ortega). With a choir singing a rendition of Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat (Day-O), they are at a funeral, most likely for Lydia’s father/Delia’s husband Charles, played in the first film by Jeffrey Jones. It comes as no surprise that Jones would not be reprising his role in the film, for reasons I won’t disclose here, but encourage you to Google him if you’re at all curious.

We’re then brought to the same house, with the same miniature village in the attic, in which the young girl accidentally summons our favorite ghost-with-the-most: Beetlejuice! And, might I add, Keaton looks exactly the same in the costume/make-up as he did in ’88.

That’s it. That’s the teaser, and I find it perfect. It builds up just enough suspense, brings up just the right amount of questions to make viewers want to go see it.

I’m not jumping to conclusions just yet by saying “This is going to be great!“, but what I’m saying is that, judging by this one minute and sixteen seconds of a teaser, I’m intrigued and considering looking more into this.

This sequel’s got many things going for it: I already mentioned the return of Michael Keaton, Wynona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, but another important piece of the puzzle is Tim Burton, who is returning in the director’s chair.

I have not heard if Geena Davis or Alec Baldwyn will be returning as the Maitlands, and I try to not look these things up as I like to be surprised when I do see the film. However, if I had to take a guess, I would say that they don’t return, especially not Alec Baldwyn, and I’m just assuming that in consideration of the accidental shooting incident that took place in 2021. I would like to see them both return as they were a CRUCIAL part of the first film, but if this sequel focuses more on the Deetz family, I’m okay with that as well.

Tim Burton’s 1988 film is a classic, and a childhood favorite of mine, so I’m not expecting this one to be better by any means, but if it can at least be true to the original (both in terms of plot and style), I’ll be happy.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set for release on September 5, 2024.

Directed By Tim Burton

Written By Alfred Gough & Miles Millar

Starring Michael Keaton, Wynona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Monica Belucci, Willem Dafoe and Justin Theroux