The director and star of Netflix’s hit series “Wednesday,” Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega will reteam for upcoming sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, headed to theaters September 6.
Jenna Ortega joins returning players Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder in the sequel to the 1980s classic, and she’ll be playing the daughter of Ryder’s iconic Lydia Deetz!
Chatting with Vanity Fair this week, Ortega confirmed that is indeed the role she’s playing – not that there was any question – while also teasing what we can expect from the role.
We also finally have a name for her character: Astrid!
“I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, but I am Lydia Deetz’s daughter, so I’ll give that away,” Ortega tells the outlet. “She’s weird, but in a different way and not in the way you’d assume, I would say. The relationship between Lydia (Ryder) and Astrid, my character, is very important. And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again.”
Ortega went on to explain, “I feel like studios nowadays, of course they want people in seats and you’ve got to do reboots or sequels or things like that to get people entwined, but to bring ‘Beetlejuice’ back — of all of the stories –is so good because people need to revisit weird, strange, off-putting stories again. We need to introduce the younger generation that’s always on the phone to new artistic and creative ideas. The weirder you get with it, the more people you can get to see it, I think will probably do a lot for film in general.”
Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci also star in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Justin Theroux recently joined the cast of the sequel as well, with frequent Tim Burton collaborator Danny Elfman coming back to compose the film’s score.
The original classic was directed by Burton in 1988 and has become a cult favorite. It starred Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as ghosts who haunt their old home. When a little girl (Winona Ryder) accidentally unleashes a mischievous ghost (Michael Keaton), the ghosts try to drive the homeowners (Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones) out of the house.
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