Tim Burton breaks silence on Alec Baldwin' exclusion from 'Beetlejuice' sequel

Director Tim Burton explained why Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis won't be in the sequel to his 1988 classic, Beetlejuice.

Although Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, and Michael Keaton are returning for the 2024 film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton wanted to take the story in a new direction and didn't feel the need to include every original cast member.

He told People magazine that he didn't want to simply "tick boxes" and instead focused on a fresh approach.

“So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else.”

In the 1988 original, Baldwin and Davis portrayed Adam and Barbara Maitland, a newly deceased couple trapped in their former Connecticut home, where they clash with the new inhabitants, the Deetz family - Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder), and his wife Delia (Catherine O'Hara).

The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, introduces Jenna Ortega as Lydia's teenage daughter, who unintentionally unlocks the doorway to the afterlife, reviving the supernatural chaos.

“A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time,” Burton continued. 

“That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter. And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn’t have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever.”

Davis shared her theory on why she wasn't returning for the Beetlejuice sequel, suggesting it's because "ghosts don't age."

The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, is set to hit theatres on September 6, with a new cast, including Jenna Ortega.