The ghost with the most is happy to haunt again. Beaming about returning for Beetlejuice 2, Michael Keaton has nothing but praise for returning to the spooky world of Tim Burton.
While promoting his upcoming turn as Batman in The Flash, the actor spoke with Empire at a recent event, telling the outlet that “Beetlejuice is the most fucking fun you can have working. It’s so fun. It’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie. There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move.”
The actor also dove into what it’s like having the film leave its long developmental hell status. He recalls, “[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody. I said, ‘If it happens, first of all, we’ve both said we’re doing it many times. We both agreed if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time.”
Keaton adds, “Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. Fucking great. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long.”
You can tell that the project means a lot to the actor, who is having a bit of a renaissance in the mainstream these days. After 2014’s Birdman poked fun at Hollywood and playing a hero as Keaton did, he returned to the superhero space with 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and now with The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti. Now with returning as the cult iconic Beetlejuice, Keaton is looking to claim all that nostalgic glory.
The sequel will see Michael Keaton returning as Beetlejuice alongside Winona Ryder and newcomers Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and Justin Theroux.
Beetlejuice 2 is set for release on September 6th, 2024.