Just as quickly as production on “Beetlejuice 2” resumed following the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, it’s now over. Director Tim Burton took to Instagram on Thursday to announce that filming on the sequel has wrapped, thanking the cast and crew for their work in bringing the follow-up to life while also providing a sneak peek at an iconic set that’s back for the new film.
The “Beetlejuice 2” set photo finds Burton sitting in the waiting room in the afterlife, which Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ characters so memorably visited in the 1988 original film. The director had previously said that while the project was shut down during the strike, it only had a day and a half of filming left to complete.
While plot details for “Beetlejuice 2” are under wraps, the script hails from Burton’s “Wednesday” writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and finds Winona Ryder reprising her role as Lydia Deetz, this time with a daughter played by “Wednesday” breakout Jenna Ortega.
Catherine O’Hara also returns as Delia Deetz, Michael Keaton is back as Beetlejuice and Monica Bellucci plays Beetlejuice’s wife.
When TheWrap spoke with cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos in August, he said the sequel is ultimately the story of a family.
“At its heart ‘Beetlejuice [2]’ is a story about a family,” Zambarloukos said. “And now it’s 30 years later and what are the intricacies and the human condition in keeping a family together all that time set in the craziest world possible?”
Development on a “Beetlejuice” sequel began all the way back in 1990, when Burton pitched “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian,” but that idea never materialized. The concept returned in 2011 when Seth Grahame-Smith was hired to work on a new screenplay, but the project lingered in development hell for a decade before Burton, Keaton and Ryder felt happy enough with the story to return.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Beetlejuice 2” on Sept. 6, 2024.
