No matter how many times you say their names, don’t expect Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis to appear in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Director Tim Burton recently explained why the actors did not reprise their roles as ghost couple Adam and Barbara Maitland from the original 1988 film for the long-awaited sequel, which hits theaters September 6.
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“I think for me it was that I didn’t want to just check any boxes,” said Burton People“Even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I focused on something else.”
In the first film, the recently deceased couple enlists the help of the titular ghoul (played by Michael Keaton) to scare away the yuppie family that moved in after their deaths. But when the family’s death-obsessed teenager, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), encounters the mischievous ghost, all hell breaks loose in the Connecticut house.
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“A sequel like this really had to do with the times,” Burton explained. “That was my approach, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter. And that (would be) the core of it. I personally couldn’t have done that in 1989 or something.”
Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin in Beetlejuice.
Warner Bros./Everett Collection
In Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceLydia returns home with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and her boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) after the death of her father Charles (played by Jeffrey Jones). At the funeral, Lydia reunites with her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara in her role), while Beetlejuice returns to wreak havoc once again.
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While the original film forced the couple to haunt their former home, the sequel explains how they found a “loophole” that allowed them to escape.
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Davis, who can currently be seen in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Flash twicepreviously offered a theory as to why the characters do not make a comeback in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Justin Theroux, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice World premiere.
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
“No, I’m not. I’m not in the remake,” Davis told Entertainment Tonight in April. “Oh, you expected me to be in it? Yeah, no, you know what? Because my theory is that ghosts don’t age… Not that I did that.”
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The actress added: “Our characters were forever stuck in the way they looked when they died. So it’s been a while, it’s only been a minute.”
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On Wednesday, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice received a standing ovation of over four minutes at its world premiere at the opening of the Venice International Film Festival. Burton returned to co-write and direct the screenplay with Miles Millar. The sequel also stars Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe.
