Tim Burton wanted to keep Beetlejuice ‘politically incorrect’ in the sequel

21 August 2024

Tim Burton was determined to keep Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice as "politically incorrect" as possible in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.

Tim Burton set out to keep Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice 'politically incorrect' in the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The sequel sees the 72-year-old star reprise his role as the titular character and the 65-year-old director wanted to ensure the foul-mouthed ghost hadn’t changed at all since the 1988 original film.

He told Collider: "I think Michael and I both love the fact that he was politically incorrect then, and he's politically incorrect now. I’m just laughing because somebody asked him the other day, ‘Michael, how does Beetlejuice's character evolve?’ And we just started laughing because he doesn't evolve — that's the whole point!"

Keaton - who stars alongside Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe in the upcoming picture - added the sequel would also include a lot of "big swings" but said that the cast and crew had to be "a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more politically correct" when compared to its predecessor.

He explained: "There was a lot of [big swings] in the first one. It was like one gigantic big swing. Less so now because we knew we could get away with more.

"It's weird, we had to be a tiny, tiny, tiny, bit more politically correct, but we didn't even think about that too much. A couple of times, we went, ‘Yeah, maybe not,’ and then we went right up to it."

The ‘Batman’ star also admitted he was somewhat apprehensive about returning as Beetlejuice, though insisted he had full faith in Burton making a worthy sequel.

He said: "With filmmaking, you’ve got to keep up a level of energy and pace and focus, and I didn't know what the vibe was gonna be or the process was gonna be. We shot in this little studio down at Culver City, a cool, legendary kind of place. I think they made some silent movies on some of these stages.

"But when I went over there, you don't know how it's gonna work or what the pace of things is gonna be. I didn't know.

"So, I just went in saying, ‘Well, I'm just gonna do what we did the first time as close as I can.’ Tim had already seen it; it was just totally clear in his head."