'Beetlejuice 2' movie poster unveils Tim Burton sequel's cheeky title, release date
It's (finally) showtime! The ghost with the most is about to be summoned into theaters once again.
Warner Bros. has unveiled the first poster for Tim Burton's long-awaited sequel to "Beetlejuice," which also revealed the film's official, cheeky title: "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." In the 1988 horror-comedy, Beetlejuice, a ghost played by Michael Keaton, is summoned when his name is said three times.
The poster shows a pair of hands holding a ticket number ? as seen in the afterlife waiting room scene from the original film ? which displays the sequel's release date: Sept. 6, 2024.
"The wait is almost over," the poster reads.
Burton is returning to direct "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," while Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara reprise their roles from the original. Joining them will be Jenna Ortega, who reunites with Burton after working with him on the Netflix phenomenon "Wednesday." Ortega is playing the daughter of Ryder's character, Lydia Deetz.
Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe also star. In November, Dafoe told Variety he's playing a "police officer in the afterlife" who was formerly a B-movie action star.
Dare you to say it again. #Beetlejuice #Beetlejuice - Only in theaters September 6. pic.twitter.com/0UKfCqKqxy
— Warner Bros. Pictures (@wbpictures) February 1, 2024
A sequel to "Beetlejuice" finally went into production in 2023 after years of talks and a previous failed attempt at a follow-up that would have been titled "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian." As recently as 2019, Burton told USA TODAY that he doubted a sequel would happen, though the movie did spawn a musical that opened on Broadway that year.
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The official "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" poster also notably confirmed that the film will still be released in September 2024, as originally planned, even though filming was disrupted in 2023 by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Burton told The Independent that only a "day and a half" of filming remained prior to the strike, and after a deal was reached, the director confirmed the film had finished shooting by November. "Thank you to everyone involved," he wrote on Instagram.
The early September release date places "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" in a frame where Warner Bros. has previously opened box office hits like 2017's "It" and 2018's "The Nun." In a recent Fandango survey of more than 8,000 ticket-buyers, the sequel was named the second most anticipated film of 2024 after Marvel's "Deadpool 3."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Beetlejuice 2': Tim Burton reveals movie's clever title, release date