Michael Keaton Shares His Reaction to Tim Burton’s Change to Beetlejuice’s Backstory: “Good Luck With That!”

Michael Keaton makes his long overdue return as Beetlejuice this year, and it seems that some of the character’s mystery is about to be undone as the ghost with the most is about to get a new “surprise” backstory. While this fleshes out the afterlife’s bio-exorcist, Keaton recently said that he was left feeling uneasy on first hearing Burton’s idea.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will reunite several cast members from the 1988 movie, including Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, as well as introduce several new stars to the franchise, such as Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci. This, along with the return of Keaton as the central character and Tim Burton once more in the director’s chair, has been enough to get fans fairly excited after the sequel has been teased for many years.

During his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Keaton was obviously asked about the movie. He offered up a little more detail about how this version of Beetlejuice will be somewhat different from the original iteration. He said:

“The great thing about playing Beetlejuice is, that cliched thing, you never make the statement, ‘Well my character wouldn’t do that.’ He’d do anything, which was so tremendous to play. However, in the second one, which I’m telling you is so good, Tim lays this idea on me. Admittedly, I kind of went, ‘Oh, okay. I don’t know, good luck with that.’ So, there is a kind of backstory, which is kind of a surprise for everyone.”

Can Beetlejuice Recapture Its ‘80s Magic?

Beetlejuice is a movie that arrived at the right time for everyone involved. It delivered special effects ahead of its time, gave Burton the ability to be as wild and outlandish as he wanted to be, and saw Keaton and the rest of the cast deliver a one-of-a-kind dark fantasy with comical and horrifying elements in equal measure.

After 36 years, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has the license to lean into a certain amount of nostalgia, and will seemingly do so through elements such as a callback to the iconic dining table scene through the inclusion of the Harry Belafonte song “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).” However, legacy sequels can often rely on that kind of “old-fan” pandering, so there also needs to be something new brought to the story in order to make it more than just a rehash of old ideas.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice appears to be doing this, as you would expect from Burton, who very rarely returns to a project for a second time unless he knows he can do something special with it. Through delving more into the world of the afterlife, and the past of its title character, the sequel looks set to expand the Beetlejuice universe beyond the model town grave from whence he first emerged to terrify the Deetz’s. Having promised an “old school” approach, with plenty of practical effects and the classic Burton touch, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice looks set to tap back into everything that made the original special, and then some.