Beetlejuice 3 Is Even Riskier After The 2024 Sequel’s $451M Success

Considering how quickly the next sequel has moved into development, Beetlejuice 3’s story comes as a risk after the 2024 movie’s iconic character returns. Just seven months after Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s successful release in September 2024, Warner Bros. recently confirmed that Beetlejuice 3 is in development. While there are no confirmed details about the plot, returning cast members, or whether Tim Burton will direct Beetlejuice 3, it’s still expected that the next movie will continue the Deetz family’s story with Michael Keaton returning as Betelgeuse.

With Beetlejuice 3’s announcement arriving so soon after Beetlejuice 2, there’ll be a very different mindset going into the next installment compared to the 36 years that it took between 1988’s Beetlejuice and the 2024 film. The franchise is coming off an impressive $451 million box office haul and positive reviews for Beetlejuice 2, with much of that excitement being rooted in the long delay and seeing Burton, Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara back in that world. That appeal ultimately paid off for Beetlejuice 2, but Beetlejuice 3’s quicker turnaround now requires a different allure.

Making Beetlejuice 3 So Soon Risks What Made Beetlejuice 2 So Interesting

Beetlejuice 3 Loses The Nostalgia Factor

One of the reasons why Beetlejuice 2 was so enticing was the nostalgia factor. It had been nearly 40 years since we had seen these characters on the big screen, with Beetlejuice 2’s main returning cast members having continued to have illustrious careers in the time since. Additionally, the timing of Beetlejuice 2 couldn’t have been better when paired with the career resurgence of key original figures in the early 2020s, making it all the more exciting to see them return to roles that were so crucial to the beginning of their Hollywood careers.

After 1988’s Beetlejuice, Keaton went on to become Batman, receive an Oscar nomination, and win an Emmy. With Beetlejuice marking teenage Winona Ryder’s breakout role, the actress continued to be one of the biggest stars of the late-‘80s and ‘90s before experiencing somewhat of a slump in the ‘00s, only for Stranger Things to bring her back into the limelight in the late 2010s and 2020s. Meanwhile, O’Hara maintained steady prominence after Beetlejuice, but skyrocketed in popularity in the late 2010s due to her Emmy-winning role in Schitt’s Creek.

Not to mention, Beetlejuice 2 was being seen as a big test for Tim Burton. After being one of the biggest directors in the ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s, he experienced a series of critical and/or commercial disappointments in the 2010s, such as 2019’s Dumbo, that seemed to mark the end of his heyday. However, after bouncing back in 2022 with massive success as a director and executive producer on Netflix’s Addams Family horror-comedy Wednesday, Beetlejuice 2 provided a chance to continue that comeback on the big screen.

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Beetlejuice 3’s New Announcement Might Be Too Soon, But It Helps Avoid One Of My Biggest Worries About Michael Keaton’s Iconic Character

Beetlejuice 3 is already confirmed to be in development at WB, which avoids one of my fears about the future of Michael Keaton’s Betelgeuse.

Beetlejuice 2’s cast and director were arguably almost more integral to the film’s success than its story, with ‘80s nostalgia also proving to be successful with hit titles like Stranger Things. However, the nostalgic fascination of seeing Beetlejuice’s cast and director reunite, finally bringing that fantastical world and those iconic characters back on the big screen, and seeing how Keaton’s mischievous Betelgeuse would play with a new generation is no longer novel after Beetlejuice 2. Consequently, Beetlejuice 3 has a bigger challenge and risk of needing to exceed the appeal of nostalgia by crafting a more compelling, innovative story.

Beetlejuice 3 Will Have A Harder Time Incorporating Some Of The Franchise’s Most Beloved Aspects

Beetlejuice 3 Can’t Reuse The Same Elements All Over Again

As is often the case with legacy sequels that arrive decades after the original movie, Beetlejuice 2 was able to justify reusing many of the iconic story elements and trademarks of the 1988 Tim Burton film. It had been decades since seeing aspects like Beetlejuice’s Sandworm, the Neitherworld waiting room, a Lydia-Betelgeuse wedding, a shrunken-head ghost, and a possession musical sequence like “Day-O,” so Beetlejuice 2 was able to get away with reincorporating these due to the nostalgia factor.

Since Beetlejuice 3 is expected to arrive within a few years, it can’t use nostalgia to justify integrating these iconic original elements all over again. If we saw the Sandworms, a new dance scene, another angsty teen plot, and Betelgeuse forcing Lydia into a wedding for a third time, it would come off as lacking creativity and simple fan service, bringing into question why Beetlejuice 3 would even be warranted. It would be too repetitive to rely on these memorable features that have arguably already been diluted by their sequel returns, rather than expand on Beetlejuice’s fairly boundless afterlife world.

How Beetlejuice 3 Can Still Work

Beetlejuice 3 Needs To Go In A New Direction, Without Losing The Franchise’s Heart

While the nostalgia factor can no longer be a primary appeal, Beetlejuice 3 still has to find a balance of maintaining the core facets of what makes the franchise so beloved. Inevitably, a return would have to include Betelgeuse pining after Lydia, another unexpected venture into the afterlife world with frightening new ghosts, and a tragic death to kick off the story. However, with both Lydia and Astrid now having the ability to see ghosts, Beetlejuice 3 can explore their shared gift while basing the story around certain aspects of what we didn’t get to see after Beetlejuice’s original ending.

After Beetlejuice’s ending, we have relatively no idea how the Maitlands and Deetzes’ living situation worked, how the Maitlands’ afterlife loophole worked, what Lydia was doing before starting her Ghost House show, and what Betelgeuse’s next steps were like after being banished back to the afterlife waiting room. Beetlejuice 3 could look more at the immediate aftermath of these events, while also exploring Lydia and Astrid living with Delia and Charles’ ghosts in Winter River, Betelgeuse being forced into yet another afterlife profession, and how seeing ghosts continues affecting Astrid as she comes of age.

Beetlejuice

9/10

Release Date

March 30, 1988

Runtime

92 minutes

Writers

Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson, Warren Skaaren