Tim Burton Explains Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis Absence from “Beetlejuice 2”

The upcoming Beetlejuice sequel is set to bring some familiar faces back to the big screen, alongside newcomer Jenna Ortega, playing Astrid Deetz. However, not everyone from the original cast will be returning. Director Tim Burton recently shared that Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are not reprising their iconic roles as Adam and Barbara Maitland in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

“I think the thing was for me I didn’t want to just tick any boxes,” Burton explained to PEOPLE. “So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else.”

Davis, 68, and Baldwin, 66, were pivotal in the original 1988 film, portraying the Maitlands, a young married couple whose spirits haunt their Connecticut home after dying in a car accident. They were at odds with the Deetz family, comprised of Lydia (Winona Ryder), Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and Charles (Jeffrey Jones), who doesn’t return for the sequel. The Maitlands sought help from Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) to scare the Deetz family away.

Despite their importance in the original film, Burton reveals that the Maitlands’ absence in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be explained through them discovering a “loophole” that allows them to finally leave their haunted home. The focus of the sequel, Burton says, will be on O’Hara, Ryder, and Ortega—representing three generations of Deetz women.

“A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time. That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter,” he stated. “And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn’t have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever.”

Set decades after the original film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice follows the Deetz women’s return to Winter River after a family tragedy. According to the official synopsis, “still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”

In addition to Ryder, O’Hara, Keaton, and Ortega, the sequel will feature Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, and Willem Dafoe. Fans won’t have to wait much longer, as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to hit theaters on Friday, Sept. 6.

Source: PEOPLE