The title character of Beetlejuice was supposed to be incredibly different according to details in the movie's original script. The fantasy comedy film with horror elements was released in 1988. Directed by Tim Burton, produced by the Geffen Company, and distributed by Warner Bros., Beetlejuice centers on recently deceased couple Barbara and Adam Maitland, played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. The Maitlands, stuck in limbo, become ghosts and decide to haunt their former home.
When a new family—the Deetzes—move into the Maitlands' Connecticut country house, the couple turns to a devious poltergeist known as Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) for help. Beetlejuice is from the Netherworld, and tries to help the Maitlands scare the Deetzes away. The filmmakers behind Beetlejuice went through the ringer putting together a background story and suitable personality for the unique character.
In many ways, Beetlejuice did not age well as a movie. The titular poltergeist is creepy, and makes several sexually charged jokes and comments that would've sparked outrage if the movie was released in 2020. One of these instances comes when Beetlejuice tries to trick Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) into marrying him so he can enter the mortal world. He also constantly pesters and grabs at Barbara, and she calls him a pervert. It turns out, however, that originally the movie was much darker, and the initial character plan for Beetlejuice was overall very different that what audiences are familiar with.
The original character of Beetlejuice—created by co-screenwriter Michael McDowell—was supposed to be a winged demon. In McDowell's initial vision, Beetlejuice took on the form of a short, Middle Eastern man; much of his dialogue was written in racist vernacular. Also in the original version of the script, Beetlejuice wasn't just a comical, troublesome poltergeist trying to scare away the Deetzes. Instead, he wanted to kill them. Additionally, in the original story, Beetlejuice didn't want to marry Lydia—he wanted to sleep with her, which of course is problematic since Lydia is portrayed as a minor.
Fortunately, co-screenwriter Walter Skaaren rewrote Beetlejuice to give the movie its lighter, more comedic tone, changing the character of Beetlejuice to more of a comic relief element rather than downright murderous. Skaaren also changed around the "rules" of Beetlejuice, creating the notion that his name has to be said three times in order for him to be summoned; originally, he only needed to be dug up from his grave. The final cut didn't include Beetlejuice for the first 45 minutes, and when he does finally appear, he only has about 18 minutes of screen time.