Michael Keaton Will Reprise His Role As Beetlejuice in the Sequel, Seth Grahame-Smith Swears

Before everyone gets as excited as I surely did, I’ll clarify on the headline: There is no official word that Michael Keaton is going to be reprising his titular role in the sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice. I can’t even offer a follow-up “However …” because this is merely the very, very strong desire expressed by the screenwriter writing the script to the Beetlejuice sequel, Seth Grahame-Smith. But now that it’s been put into the ether … can Keaton really, really, really resist this? What do we have to do to make this happen, besides (obviously) saying his name three times and making it so?

We first heard about a new Beetlejuice movie in early September, and back then, we called it a reboot. However, Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) has stated otherwise, and basically says that he won’t make the movie if Keaton doesn’t return:

The star of the movie has to be Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, and it’s a true continuation 26 years later. Not just throwing him in as a cameo going, “Hey, it’s me. I endorse this movie.”

It should be noted that this means the new project will be a proper sequel. In fact, Smith’s producing partner, David Katzenberg, adamantly denies that they are doing a remake or a reboot in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Smith goes even further to say that they wouldn’t have even pursued this project without the “blessing and involvement” of the original’s director, Tim Burton, which they have, apparently gotten. There were no further details on what role Burton would play in the new production. (Burton is, however, serving as producer on the film adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.)

As for Keaton, nothing is set in stone because there isn’t a script yet. So this is all part of David Katzenberg’s and Seth Grahame-Smith’s wish list for their upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, and we are left to cross our fingers and hope Keaton doesn’t think he’s too cool to come back and be the host with the most. Because who really wants to have the discussion about who can play Beetlejuice and not make us yearn for the original? (Unless it ends up being Johnny Depp, in which case we’ll just sigh, think “Yeah, I guess I’m not too pissed about that — it’s Depp, he does everything,” and then go about our merry ways.)

(Entertainment Weekly via Bleeding Cool)