Michael Keaton will once again let the juice loose in the long-awaited legacy sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. But will the follow-up make changes to the main character who, let’s be fair, is pretty rough around the edges, to make him more palatable for modern audiences? Well, Keaton has now discussed the issue in a new interview with GQ, addressing whether Beetlejuice will be “politically correct.”
“As for the character himself, there was not a ton of updating to be done there. Beetlejuice, debauched sicko in 1988, remains a debauched sicko in our more enlightened era.
He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she, he’s more of an it. And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.’”
So, according to Keaton, Beetlejuice will remain unchanged when the sequel lands in theaters next month, with the actor promising that “it” will be just as much of “a debauched sicko” as it ever was. Which will no doubt have some fans feeling relieved.
Beetlejuice Won’t Be In the Sequel Much, According to Michael Keaton
As well as maintaining the same deviousness and attitude from more than three decades ago, Michael Keaton also revealed that, much like the first movie, Beetlejuice will not appear in the movie all that much. The title character only has around 17 minutes of screentime in the original outing, and Keaton feels the sequel will be similar, with Beetlejuice not the one to “drive the story.”
“The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it. I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He’s more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.”
Directed by Tim Burton, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice finds Michael Keaton back in the title role with the likes of Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, and Willem Dafoe joining him on this Netherworld adventure.
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You can check out the official synopsis for the long-awaited sequel below:
“Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”