Our Willem Dafoe Beetlejuice 2 Exclusive Confirmed By The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter confirms our scoop from earlier this week that Willem Dafoe has been cast in the upcoming Beetlejuice 2.
Earlier this week we exclusively brought you the good news that Tim Burton had cast Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) as some kind of ghostly cop in the long-awaited Beetlejuice 2, and now The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed our scoop. For those keeping score, this is GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT‘s second Beetlejuice 2 exclusive to receive a confirmation. Last week, we were the first to report that Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive) would appear in the film, and this week Deadline confirmed it.
Beetlejuice 2 marks a number of firsts for Willem Dafoe. It will be his first on-screen collaboration with Michael Keaton — who plays the titular “Bio-Exorcist” — as well as his first time working with director Tim Burton on a feature. It will not, however, be his first rodeo with Theroux since both appeared in the satirical slasher American Psycho.
Since plot details haven’t been released yet about the sequel, the fact that Willem Dafoe will play some kind of afterlife cop is all we know. We don’t know if he will be working against the machinations of Michael Keaton‘s Betelgeuse, with him, or if he’ll just be one of the many disillusioned civil servants we met in the first movie. The first film suggests that Betelgeuse is seen as an outlaw in the afterlife, but it’s far too early to tell what that will mean for Dafoe’s character.
Willem Dafoe is just the latest of the stars announced for Beetlejuice 2. Keaton of course will once again play Betelgeuse, Winona Ryder will return as Lydia who has the gift of being able to see ghosts, and Catherine O’Hara returns as Lydia’s upper crust mother Delia. Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) will play Lydia’s daughter and Monica Bellucci (The Matrix Reloaded) will reportedly play Betelgeuse’s wife.
Production on Beetlejuice 2 began this week, and so far there are some names missing among those who may or may not be joining Willem Dafoe and co. on set. Most notably there is no word on whether or not Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin would reprise their roles as the Maitlands. It seems more than a little possible that the controversy surrounding Baldwin and the tragic Rust shooting could keep him out of the film if nothing else.
Then there’s Jeffrey Jones, who played Lydia’s father Charles in the original film. Jones hasn’t appeared in a screen project since 2019’s Deadwood: The Movie, and this is likely at least in part due to a number of arrests in the early 2000s related to child pornography and allegedly soliciting minors.
Glenn Shadix, who played the Deetz’s snooty interior decorator Otho in Beetlejuice, passed away in 2010.
Regardless of who else has been added to the cast, we’ll get to see Willem Dafoe and the rest of them when Beetlejuice 2 hits theaters September 6, 2024.
