Winona Ryder’s Lydia Faces Michael Keaton’s Betelgeuse Again

Summary

• Warner Bros. had released the first trailer for the sequel
  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
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• Michael Keaton returns as Betelgeuse after 36 years in the long-awaited sequel.
• The trailer revives nostalgic imagery and music while telling a new story.

The first trailer for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice finally reveals the first look at Michael Keaton’s return as the titular character. Keaton will reprise his role as the trickster ghost 36 years after he first brought him to life. The sequel will also see Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprising their roles as Lydia and Delia Deetz, while new cast members include Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci.

Now, Warner Bros. has dropped the first trailer for the upcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Check it out below:

The trailer kicks off with Astrid Deetz (Ortega) bicycling through town before a scene of her attending a funeral with her mother Lydia and her grandmother Delia. The first glimpse of Betelgeuse himself doesn’t come until the very end, when he emerges from a model town in the attic and intones “the juice is loose.”

Everything Revealed in the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Trailer

While the trailer only has a brief run time, it is jam-packed with hints as to the overall plot and tone of the movie. The biggest is the funeral sequence, which may be confirming the death of Deetz patriarch Charles (Jeffrey Jones). Jones is not among the returning Beetlejuice cast members that have been announced for the sequel. While death wouldn’t necessarily prevent a character from appearing onscreen due to the franchise’s habit of exploring the afterlife, the actor is now a registered sex offender, which may have necessitated recasting if the character had returned.

The trailer also showcases how many in-jokes that reference the original Beetlejuice. In just a minute, the clip has already reintroduced the model town and the song “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte, which held a major role in the 1988 movie. The video also showcases various familiar locations including the Deetz house, the covered bridge, and Miss Shannon’s School for Girls.

Miss Shannon’s School for Girls is the school in which Lydia Deetz was enrolled in the original
Beetlejuice
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These references don’t necessarily mean that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will entirely rely on nostalgic callbacks, however. The fact that Jenna Ortega is foregrounded in the trailer is reminiscent of her previous collaboration with Burton on the hit Netflix show Wednesday. That show blended the iconography of The Addams Family with a modern sensibility, which is likely the same approach that the director took to this belated sequel to his iconic horror-comedy.

Source: Warner Bros.