Winona Ryder is back as Lydia Deetz in new set photos from Beetlejuice 2. Released in 1988, Beetlejuice played a huge role in launching a lot of legendary careers, including those of director Tim Burton and star Ryder. Now almost four decades on from the original, Ryder and Beetlejuice actor Michael Keaton are joining Burton for the long-awaited Beetlejuice 2, which has added Wednesday star Jenna Ortega in the role of Lydia Deetz’s teenage daughter.It will likely be a long time before the world sees the first Beetlejuice 2 trailer, but a first glimpse has now been afforded of Ryder officially back in costume as Lydia Deetz, thanks to set photos posted to Twitter by @EpicFilmGuys.
In the images, Ryder can be seen looking very much like her old gothy self while riding shotgun in a car, her hair done in a fashion that can only be described as classically Burton-esque.
Beetlejuice 2 Can Make Tim Burton Cool Again
Burton became one of the hottest directors in Hollywood thanks to early movies like Beetlejuice, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Edward Scissorhands, also taking on legitimate blockbuster assignments like Batman, and becoming an awards-season darling with the acclaimed biopic Ed Wood. But after seizing the mantle of established Hollywood professional, Burton arguably saw his creativity wane, as he became a reliable, but somewhat boring crafter of big-budget, effects-heavy, family-friendly fare like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland.
Those who fondly recall the earliest Burton films would love to see the director leave behind the blockbuster factory and return to his quirkier ways, but there has been little evidence in his recent work to suggest that such a reversion to form is in the offing. Perhaps making Beetlejuice 2 will do more than just stir nostalgia in Burton, but will actually fire up his creative juices, and wake up the echoes of the cool-nerd-goth Burton audiences originally fell in love with.
It’s yet to be seen whether Beetlejuice 2 will make Burton cool again, but he certainly has a great cast to work with, headlined by Ryder, Keaton and Ortega, along with another returning Beetlejuice star in Catherine O’Hara, plus newcomers Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci. Happily, Burton has kept alive another long-time creative collaboration, meaning Danny Elfman will be back to do the music for Beetlejuice 2, helping the long-awaited sequel recapture some of the whimsy and weirdness that made the original a classic of the 1980s.
Source: @EpicFilmGuys/Twitter
