EntertainmentMoviesFantasy MoviesBeetlejuice 2The Beetlejuice 2 trailer left me wishing Adam and Barbara were a part of the sequelWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentMoviesFantasy MoviesBeetlejuice 2The Beetlejuice 2 trailer left me wishing Adam and Barbara were a part of the sequelWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
If I told you how many times I’ve rewound the part where Alec Baldwin’s character Adam Maitland first encounters the titular ghost in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, you’d give me a concerned look and immediately confiscate my TV remote. The actor’s slack-jawed reaction is several seconds too late, absurdly hammy, and has been cracking me and my pals up since we first watched the film in the ’90s. Back then, we’d play it on a loop in the wee hours of every sleepover, and roll about the floor giggling – eyes glistening with happy tears. I’m literally laughing at the thought of it as I’m writing right now…
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
You see, for all its kooky zaniness, Beetlejuice wouldn’t work as well without awkward, “straight man” characters like Adam and Barbara to bounce every gag off of. They’re a hilariously boring pair, who spend their days reading or doing things like building miniature towns in the attic. It will never not be funny that they perished on their way back home from buying… decorating supplies. (If you’ve not seen Beetlejuice yet, you should know that Adam and Barbara die at the start, before enlisting the help of Michael Keaton’s eponymous trickster to help spook away their home’s horrid new occupants). They’re the complete antithesis of your typical exciting hero and are all the better for it. As the deliciously dull duo are comically thrust into – and struggle to adjust to – the chaotic world of afterlifes, bio-exorcists, and giant sandworms, they grab our hands and pull us along with ‘em, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine how we, too, would fare in such a bonkers situation.
Mother coming back to MOTHER in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pic.twitter.com/ANoma7FzT0March 21, 2024
Mother coming back to MOTHER in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pic.twitter.com/ANoma7FzT0March 21, 2024
Idoget it. There are reasons Adam and Barbara are unlikely to show up in the follow-up. (It seems worth noting here that while they’ve not been confirmed to return and didn’t appear in the teaser, Warner Bros. has not categorically stated they’re not involved). “I have a feeling ghosts don’t age. How would they explain that they’re older?” Davis previously askedPEOPLEback in late 2022, going some way to explain why she and Baldwin won’t be reprising the roles 36 years on.
Cinemagoers’ wants and needs have changed drastically in the last three decades, too, and unfortunately, subtlety – particularly in legacy sequels – is a dying art. Is your movie even successful nowadays if it doesn’t birth hundreds of thousands of memes, or fans don’t share screenshots of your main characters declaring them “mother!”? Whimsy, too. The clip opening on a funeral, complete with choir boys singing a slowed down version of ‘Day-O’, suggests it’s going to be a More Serious than what came before it.
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was always going to be bigger than its $15 million-budgeted predecessor, and despite my anxieties, I can’twaitto be back in that world again. I just hope that it remembers what made the original as special as it is. Adam and Barbara Maitland, gone but not forgotten.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice releases on September 6. In the meantime, check out our breakdown of the most excitingupcoming moviesheading our way.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”