Beetlejuice 2 Update: Is it finally really happening?

Recently, I saw a post on 1428 Elm about Jenna Ortega joining the cast of Beetlejuice 2. Wait, what? Norwegian recently announced that Beetlejuice: The Musical would be the headline production aboard its newest ship, the Norwegian Viva. But now there’s also news that a Beetlejuice sequel was finally happening? That’s a major Beetlejuice 2 update!

The post was dated before April 1, or I would’ve worried it was an April Fool’s Day joke. (If it had been, it would’ve been a cruel, albeit brilliant, one.)

Still, I didn’t trust it.

Although, it seemed plausible. Beetlejuice 2 is still identified as a Tim Burton project, and Ortega was the titular character in Burton’s hit Netflix series Wednesday. Directors and producers often recruit talent they’re familiar with and have worked with before. It would make perfect sense that she’d signed on.

But if she had, that meant the project had picked up substantial momentum.

The first place I headed in search of more Beetlejuice 2 updates was not Google, for a change, but IMDB. The trouble is, I can’t always trust their information. Sometimes release dates are wrong, or titles or actors’ names are misspelled, etc.

What about in this case? Would it be accurate? Here’s what I uncovered.

IMDB Beetlejuice 2 Update

The first thing I noticed was that, sure enough, Jenna Ortega had been added under the Top Cast section. Michael Keaton is the only other actor listed there —so far.

Tim Burton is still listed as the director. Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg, and Michael McDowell are listed as writers.

There’s no synopsis, but there is a brief description that reads, “This is a follow-up to the comedy Beetlejuice (1988), about a ghost who’s recruited to help haunt a house.”

But there was a poster, in this case of Betelgeuse holding his trademark white suit with black stripes to partially cover his face. 

My first thought was, “Wow! If it has a poster, then that means it’s really happening!”

Not so fast…

The Beetlejuice 2 Poster

The poster is beautiful. It invokes the original Beetlejuice spirit while at the same time conveying the titular character’s mischievous ways.

And it looks incredibly official. At the top, it reads “A Tim Burton Film” and just below that Michael Keaton’s name is in all caps. But as I analyzed it more closely, I noticed something on the bottom: “AlexMurilloArt.”

This is when I finally invoked Google and was taken to www.alexmurilloart.com. Was this the graphic designer they’d used to create the posters?

Well, not exactly. Not yet. (I hope they’ll consider him, though.) In addition to the one featuring Michael Keaton, I discovered a couple more Beetlejuice 2 concept art posters on his Projects page, one with Wynona Ryder and the other with Johnny Depp. He even includes before and afters to show what he based his final products on, which is pretty cool to see.

Beetlejuice 2 Filming Update

A March 13 Collider post indicated that filming could get underway as soon as summer 2023, info they gleaned from The Hollywood Reporter. But first, of course, they’ll have to have the cast in place.

Collider talked about Ortega being offered the role and how she “…hasn’t been officially cast yet, but it seems that she is being asked to play the part of Lydia’s daughter, indicating that this could be a passing of the torch film of sorts.”

So, there aren’t any official Beetlejuice 2 updates or announcements yet, but there are a couple of things to indicate that, yes, the sequel hasn’t been forgotten and could even surprise us with a 2024 Halloween premiere.

Or it could fall off the map again and leave us hanging still wondering if it’s ever going to happen.

Check-In

What do you think? Will Beetlejuice 2 pull a Hocus Pocus and see a sequel finally come to life? Or would it be better to just leave well enough alone?