Beetlejuice Beetlejuice team on whether a threequel is likely: “Anything could happen”

Over three decades after the original, the Beetlejuice sequel will finally hit screens this year. But with so long in between each movie, we wonder if a third movie or even a full-on franchise is likely, something that the Beetlejuice team is unsure of also. 

“We haven’t talked about where it could go from here, we just talked about making one really good movie,” producer Tommy Harper tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, August 15, which features Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on the cover. “Make it the best you can, and then anything could happen.”

Either way, director Tim Burton doesn’t seem too keen on the idea as he noticeably squirms at the suggestion of a Beetlejuice franchise, or that he’d even call this installment bigger or better than what came before. “I don’t know. That would make me sound like William Castle or something – ’the biggest, the greatest, the most fabulous motion picture since Glen or Glenda!'” says Burton. “I hope for the best, really. I just feel good this was done in the spirit and feeling of the original. However the movie does, it was a very good experience for me in that way.”

Released in 1988, the first movie introduced us to Michael Keaton’s Ghost with the Most, as he’s summoned by a recently deceased married couple to scare away their home’s new occupants: the Deetz family. In Beetlejuice 2, officially titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the Deetzes will once again descend upon that fateful house in Winter River, when Lydia Deetz’s teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) gets tangled up with the ghoul.  

It’s curious to think what a possible third movie would entail. Burton isn’t the type to venture into franchises, with many of his iconic films such as Edward Scissorhands and Mars Attacks not even receiving sequels despite fans calling for them. But as Harper says, “anything could happen.”

As well as Ortega and Keaton, the sequel also welcomes back Winona Ryder as Lydia and Catherine O’Hara as Lydia’s stepmother Delia. New cast members alongside Ortega include Poor Things‘ Willem Dafoe, Mulholland Drive’s Justin Theroux, and The Matrix’s Monica Bellucci. 

Pre-order the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice issue of Total Film

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is released on September 6. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, August 15.

Check out the covers below:

(Image credit: Martin Schoeller/Total Film/Cover Art Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it’s in stores and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

(Image credit: Total Film/Warner Bros/Disney/Marvel Studios/20th Century Studios/Amazon)