Tim Burton Once Said He’d Never Make a ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel
Some movie directors have a habit of saying things that come back to haunt them. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is finally getting a sequel and, surprisingly, that sequel was directed by the Ed Wood director himself. Interestingly, Burton didn’t like the idea of making a Beetlejuice sequel or remake back in the day. Here is what he’s said about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice more recently.
Tim Burton refused to make a sequel to ‘Beetlejuice’ or 1 of his other movies
During a 2007 interview with Total Film, Burton was asked how he felt about the possibility that one of his movies would get remade. “Yikes!” he said. “I don’t know about that.
“I mean, I’ve often resisted re-visiting,” he added. “Like in the case of [The Nightmare Before Christmas] and Beetlejuice, they asked me to do sequels and I just said ‘No.’ I wanted to keep the integrity of those particular things. Those movies were special to me.”
Tim Burton was fine with other filmmakers retooling Batman
Interestingly, a reporter asked Burton how he felt about Batman getting retooled after he left the franchise, and his attitude toward Batman was completely different. “I was lucky when I made Batman because, at the time, it felt like new territory,” he said. “We went back to the traditions of the comic and they were usually light and cartoony. It was exciting. Then, all of a sudden, every comic book hero is a tortured soul in a funny costume. [Laughs]
“I think the genre’s always having to reinvent itself and, obviously, comics are a kind of modern folk tale that can stand to be retold and relooked at in many different ways,” he added. “But I think the dark, tortured comic book. Well, I think it’s time for a new angle. Maybe it’s time to go back to the brightly colored cartoon.” Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy and other Marvel films, superhero movies took a step away from the darkness of Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns.
The director said his ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel is going to be a personal statement
Burton has made different statements about Beetlejuice more recently. During a 2024 interview with Empire, he said that his flop remake of Walt Disney’s Dumbo made him lose interest in movies. However, he felt rejuvenated after making the Netflix series Wednesday. The writers of that series penned a screenplay for the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Burton liked it.
The Ed Wood director said he connected with the character of Lydia from the original film and wondered what she might be doing decades later. Burton said his Beetlejuice sequel was a personal statement from him that reflected how he changed since he had children.
Burton also said that he lost his way for a while. He may have been talking about his string of disappointing films, such as Dark Shadows, Big Eyes, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Could Beetlejuice Beetlejuice be his big comeback that pleases his old fans? Or will it be another wrongheaded attempt to capitalize on nostalgia, like his remake of Dumbo? Time will tell. If Burton is to be believed, he’s at least made Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a personal statement, and his best films, like Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, feel personal.
