Winona Ryder talked about the delayed follow-up to 1988’s ’Beetlejuice’ in a recent interview with ComicBook. She shared how waiting for decades to return helped them cast the right people for new roles, especially Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz.
“There were a lot of times when I was, you know, I had sort of gotten my hopes up and, but there was never, I felt like it was sort of this kismet fate because I, I realized that we had to wait for Jenna to be born and grow up and be like the perfect because she really just fit, she sort of completed this puzzle, you know,” the actress said. “And she was such an amazing addition, as was Justin [Theroux] and Willem [Dafoe] and Monica [Bellucci]. I mean, it’s like a dream cast.”
Ryder previously noted that Jenna Ortega and Justin Theroux’s casting influenced her portrayal of adult Lydia Deetz in the new film, as well. “I think once we got there and once Jenna and I bonded and once Justin came on board,” she explained to Slash Film. “I mean, I think everyone who’s as old as I am now, we’ve all been in those things where you’re just like, ‘What was I thinking, in terms of the relationship I have?’”
Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara also reprised their roles for the sequel, which will follow the Deetz family’s return to Winter River and the Afterlife. Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito, Arthur Conti, and Filipe Cates joined them in the cast.
’Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ opened at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024, ahead of its theater release on September 6.
