Winona Ryder Secretly Met Tim Burton to Advance Beetlejuice 2

The actress also really wanted a sequel to this cult comedy to see the light of day.

When she first played Lydia, this young teenager like no other, Winona Ryder is about 15 years old. In Beetlejuicereleased in 1988, she faces Michael Keaton as a completely crazy bioexorcist. Today, this gothic-themed comedy by Tim Burton is more than iconic – it has become cult. And for the actress, it has above all served as a springboard in her career – as she admitted in 2012 during the promotion of Frankenweenie :

“I told him (editor's note: Tim Burton) owe my career in a sense thanks to Beetlejuice. The fact that he gave me this role was the greatest gift and it allowed me to continue afterwards. I don't think it would have happened any other way. I probably would have ended up back at school, and maybe I wouldn't have continued acting.”

While Beetlejuice has saved her film career and propelled her to the top, the one that Tim Burton also directed in Edward Scissorhands has every reason to desire a sequel to the adventures of the director's mad creature. After his reunion with Beetlejuice 2, The actress recently confided to Harper's Bazaar in a lengthy interview that when they first met in the studio, she did not know who she was talking to:

“I was sitting there, and this guy with a file came in. I thought he was an assistant or a messenger. We started talking about Edward Gorey. (editor's note: an American illustrator) and after half an hour, I think I have a friend there, so I ask him if he knows Tim Burton and where his office is, and he says to me 'It's me.'I didn't know directors could be like Tim. He was 27 at the time. I asked him if he wanted me to read my script and he said no, so I thought I had screwed up. (…) He finally told me he wanted me to play the part. It had never happened before, that I was offered a part without auditioning. Never.”

Almost forty years later, Winona Ryder is reprising the role of Lydia. And she's not displeased. She's been wanting to do this for years. During her interview, she revealed that she was secretly meeting Tim Burton to develop this much-desired and yet complicated sequel:

“There were a lot of times my agents didn't know I was meeting him.”

Because after the success of the first part, sequels were already considered, but none ultimately saw the light of day. The idea then germinated again years later before being abandoned without a second thought in 2019. Beetlejuice was indeed dead. It is finally, the series Wednesday and his meeting with Jenna Ortega – who plays Astride in Beetlejuice 2 – which rekindled desire in the director.

How Wednesday's Series Brought Beetlejuice 2 Back to Life

With Burton leaving and Ryder leaving, all that was missing was Keaton. Because what would Beetlejuice be without Beetlejuice? But he, too, was ready to come back. In an interview with Empire Last year, the actor explained that he had been talking to Tim Burton for years to set up this sequel. An eternity later, Beetlejuice 2 finally arrives.

While the boundary between the living and the dead seems very porous, the completely sick bioexorcist, awakened by Astrid who did not listen to her mother's advice, is ready to wreak havoc everywhere in his path. And to accompany his nostalgic adventures and the return of the original cast, new faces emerge: Willem Dafoe, Monica Belluci, Justin Theroux…

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be released in theaters in France on September 11.