Beetlejuice 2 director Tim Burton recently revealed why Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, who played Adam and Barbara Maitland, respectively, in the original 1988 film, aren’t part of the upcoming sequel. Their absence in the new movie has now been one of the main talking points among fans. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is slated to arrive in theaters on September 6, 2024.
Tim Burton reveals why Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis aren’t in Beetlejuice sequel
In a recent interview with People, Tim Burton said he wanted to tell a different story that didn’t include Baldwin and Davis’ characters even though they were important parts of the first movie. “I think the thing was for me I didn’t want to just tick any boxes. So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else,” Burton said.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reveals that Adam and Barbara discovered a “loophole” that allowed them to depart from their former home in Winter River, Connecticut. The confirmation about Baldwin and Davis’ absence will likely be a source of disappointment for some fans of the first movie. After all, Winona Ryder is returning as Lydia Deetz, along with Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz, and Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse.
Burton wanted several years to pass before making the sequel. A considerable part of the narrative of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice centers around the dynamic between Lydia, Lydia’s stepmother Delia, and Lydia’s teen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Following the death of Lydia’s father Charles, the Deetz family returns to Winter River.
“A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time,” Burton told People. “That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter. And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn’t have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever.”
