Beetlejuice 2 With Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder Reportedly Being Produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B

It looks like it’s officially showtime for the long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel. On Monday, new reporting from The Ankler‘s Hollywood Transom newsletter revealed that Plan B Entertainment, inc. — the award-winning production company associated with actor Brad Pitt — is lined up to produce Beetlejuice 2. Both Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder are expected to reprise their roles as Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz, respectively. The project could reportedly film as early as summer 2022. Plan B has produced a number of key films over the years, including Oscar winners Moonlight, The Departed, and 12 Years a Slave.

Reports and rumors surrounding a second Beetlejuice film have been swirling for years, but never seemed to fully come to fruition. 

“No, you know, oddly, [Burton] has not mentioned it to me,” composer Danny Elfman revealed in a 2019 interview. “The last… a year ago, I saw Michael Keaton, and he mentioned ‘So, we’re doing Beetlejuice 2?’, and I said ‘Well, you’d know more than I do.’ And I’ve heard nothing about it since.”

“Projects will be in development for quite a long time.” Elfman continued. “So I think it is something that has been in development for a few years, but I don’t know where it is in that process. I’m always the last one to hear, believe me. Often, I’ll hear about whatever movie Tim is doing, it is kinda funny, because he’ll call me and he’ll say ‘Danny, I’m doing such and such a film, would you like to come on board?’, and I’ll already have read about it in Variety two weeks earlier. So I’m not the first one to hear about things, let me put it that way.”

The new film has had a number of potential screenwriters over the years of its development, including in Just Beyond and The LEGO Batman Movie‘s Seth Grahame-Smith.

“It’s funny, when I had met with Tim about it last, and we’re talking about five years ago at this point, the reason that it’s so hard to get going is because so many people love it and because there are 10 million ways to get that sequel wrong and four ways to get it right,” Grahame-Smith explained in an interview last year. “It’s such a very fine needle to thread that I certainly like didn’t get it there, on the script side. I didn’t thread the needle. There are things that were cool and some interesting ideas. I’ve certainly emotionally moved on from it and just said, “If it happens someday, it happens.’”

“Michael Keaton is just as relevant as ever and, and Tim Burton is just as relevant as ever, but you have to have both of those people excited about something to do it,” Grahame-Smith continued. “I couldn’t get it there personally, as a writer, but maybe somebody else can.”

What do you think of the latest update surrounding Beetlejuice 2? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!