It’s been 36 years since the original Beetlejuice and six years since Tim Burton’s last movie, Dumbo. Now, the famed director has revealed what brought him back for Beetlejuice 2.
There’s no denying that Beetlejuice 2 has been on everyone’s radar, especially with it being only the second time Burton has returned for a sequel (the other being 1992’s Batman Returns). The movie brings back familiar favorites like Wynona Ryder and Michael Keaton.
Burton has always been known as a master of the macabre, and his own ideas about Hollywood left him burnt out. In an interview with Empire, the director reveals he only returned for Lydia.
“I actually had sort of lost interest in the movie industry. I felt like I’d had enough with studios. I’d had enough of all this kind of stuff,” said Burton.
“From the first [film], I really identified with Lydia. It was a character that I understood, that I felt very strongly about. The new film became very personal to me, through the Lydia character. What happened to Lydia? You know, what happens to people? What happens to all of us? What’s your journey from a gothic kind of weird teenager to what happens to you 35 years later?”
Since her debut in the original film, Lydia has become a cult classic character for those in the goth and macabre scene who felt misunderstood by parental figures and society. Burton’s sentiment also resonates with why he developed his first series, Wednesday, for Netflix.
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Like Lydia, Burton felt Wednesday was a character that he identified with. Someone unashamed of being themselves no matter what people think of her for her macabre tendencies.
“Sometimes, as you get older, you lose yourself a little bit.” Burton says. “That’s very much how I feel, and felt. You go down a path – for me, I started making movies, I make some good ones, I make some bad, you take a journey.”
“So that’s what made this more of an important and personal thing for me, all those feelings. You have relationships that change you, you have kids that change you. After all these years, that became the reason to make it. I identified with Lydia back then, and I identify with her now.”
Beetlejuice 2 follows Lydia as she goes back home with her daughter Astrid for her father’s funeral. The trailers showcase a clear disconnect between mother and daughter, but everything changes when Astrid does the unthinkable and brings back Beetlejuice to wreak havoc.
Burton is bringing back the juice in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, set to release on September 6, 2024. You can learn how Monica Belluci’s character is connected to the first movie and new movies to watch.
