First Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Reviews Are In — Is Tim Burton’s Sequel Worth The 36-Year Wait?
Summary
Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega discuss the powerful bond they formed on the set ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice. The upcoming sequel sees Ryder reprising her role from the original 1988 movieas Lydia Deetz, while Ortega plays her daughter, Astrid, who is resentful towards Lydia.Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s storyfeatures a portal to the Afterlife being opened, bringing the return of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), who tests Lydia and Astrid’s already strained relationship in new and bizarre ways.
While speaking withScreen Rant,Ryder and Ortega provided insight into how they connected with each other while filmingBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceand how it made creating the film an even more rewarding experience. Ryder spoke of the common interests she quickly realized that she and Ortega shared, in addition to how much she admires Ortega’s work as an actor. Ortega expressed her immense gratitude for working and connecting with Ryder as well. Check out their comments below:
Ryder: “I don’t think I’ve ever bonded with someone like I did with Jenna. It was insane. And it did feel a lot like I was talking to a younger version of myself, but she’s just like a thousand times cooler. Because we both have the same almost religious reverence for film. She is a cinephile, and we just can talk movies for years. We just bonded so intensely, and that was incredibly helpful.
And I do think she was able to bring her own thing to Astrid, which I thought was really, really beautiful. She definitely has the gene, but she also has all this other stuff going on. I was really just blown away by her.”
Ortega: “I would say it was pretty meaningful. That’s so wonderful and sweet to hear because, obviously, it feels very real and happened almost instantly. It’s weird; sometimes you look at someone, and you just know. I feel like we had that, and I could have never anticipated getting the incredible opportunity to work with her, let alone to get to know and love her. And she’s so easy to love.
It’s very special to me, and I can’t really compare it to anything else that I’ve had either. There were just so many more similarities than I could have imagined - even coincidentally. Everything kind of fell into place, and it was rare.”
Beetlejuice’s Deetz Family Tree Explained
The Deetz family is back to battle Michael Keaton’s character in Beetlejuice 2, with three generations confirmed: Here’s how they’re all connected.
The Winona Ryder & Jenna Ortega Pairing Is The Most Exciting Part Of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
It Will Make The Sequel Worth The Decades-Long Wait.
While it is exciting to see Keaton playing the weird and wonderful Betelgeuse again, seeing Ryder and Ortega in their respectiveBeetlejuice Beetlejuicerolesas Lydia and Astrid is the most compelling part of the upcoming film. Between Ortega’s portrayal of Wednesday Addams in Netflix’sWednesdayand Ryder’s performance as Joyce Byers inStranger Things,they have been at the forefront of streaming hits in the supernatural horror genre in recent years. Seeing their star power combined with the supernatural comedy of Tim Burton’sBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceis the ultimate pairing.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas taken decades to come to fruition, but it will likely be worth the wait to have brought Ryder and Ortega together as the sequel’s mother-and-daughter duo.
It is made even better knowing that Astrid is quite different from Wednesday. While Astrid resents her mother’s eccentricities, Wednesday embraces her dark peculiarities and is not bothered about being so different from her peers.Ryder’s younger Lydia had her fair share of parallels to Wednesday, and it will be fascinating to see how that has evolved with an older Lydia who is now the mother of Ortega’s character. It is a dream-casting scenario that can capture the interests of multiple generations.
Even though Tim Burton’sBeetlejuice Beetlejuicewill not take itself too seriously, there still needs to be an emotional core at the center of the comedy.Lydia and Astrid’s relationship can fulfill that role and be the movie’s heartthrough the evolution of their dynamic.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas taken decades to come to fruition, but it will likely be worth the wait to have brought Ryder and Ortega together as the sequel’s mother-and-daughter duo.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Cast
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the sequel to the original Tim Burton classic that starred Michael Keaton and Wynona Rider in a horror-comedy that involved ghosts trying to scare off new homebuyers from taking their house. The sequel brings back Michael Keaton as the hilarious and sleazy ghost with selfish intentions, now joined by Jenna Ortega in a new role.
