A new trailer for Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has offered fans a glimpse of new characters played by Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux.
The film, which is set to be released in cinemas on 6 September, is the sequel to Burton’s beloved 1988 horror comedy Beetlejuice.
The new trailer confirms the death of Deetz family patriach Charles, who was played by Jeffrey Jones in the original movie.
The sequel sees Winona Ryder reprise her role as Lydia Deetz, who is now an adult with a daughter of her own, Astrid, played by Wednesday breakout star Jenna Ortega.
In the wake of Charles’ death, Astrid summons Beetlejuice, played once again by Michael Keaton in one of the actor’s iconic roles.
Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara also returns as Lydia’s mother Delia Deetz.
Newcomers to the cast include Bellucci, who plays Beetlejuice’s wife, Dafoe, who plays the sinister Wolf Jackson, and Justin Theroux as a character named Rory.
House of the Dragon’s Arthur Conti also joins the cast to make his feature film debut.
Earlier this year, Burton revealed that the sequel was inspired by his own journey “from cool teenager to lame adult”.
The Edward Scissorhands director, 65, told Entertainment Weekly that getting Keaton back into the iconic costume and makeup was “a weird out-of-body experience”.
“He just got back into it,” Burton said. “It was kind of scary for somebody who was maybe not that overly interested in doing it. It was such a beautiful thing for me to see all the cast, but he, sort of like demon possession, just went right back into it.”
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He added that he and Keaton had discussed a sequel for years, but that “unless it felt right, he had no burning desire to do it.”
Burton continued: “I think we all felt the same way. It only made sense if it had an emotional hook.”
He said they found that hook in Ortega’s character Astrid.
“I so identified with the Lydia character, but then you get to all these years later, and you take your own journey, going from cool teenager to lame adult, back and forth again,” explained Burton. “That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it.”
“On this last one, Beetlejuice 2, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”
