Tim Burton Reveals Why Baldwin and Davis Aren’t in ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel

Tim Burton explained the absence of Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis from his upcoming Beetlejuice sequel this week.

Though Burton has brought back original stars Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael Keaton for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, set for 2024, Baldwin and Davis do not return.

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

In the original film, Baldwin and Davis played Adam and Barbara Maitland, a recently deceased couple confined to the Connecticut house where they used to live. They find themselves in conflict with the home’s new residents, the Deetz family: Charles, his daughter Lydia, and Charles’s wife Delia.

In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which wowed audiences during its Venice Film Fest premiere on Wednesday, Jenna Ortega plays Lydia’s teenage daughter who accidentally reopens the door to the afterlife.

“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 had previously shared her theory in April with Entertainment Tonight, suggesting she was not returning because “ghosts don’t age.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will release in theaters on September 6.

Source: People, Entertainment Tonight