Michael Keaton is back as the titular Ghost with the Most in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel to his 1988 classic Beetlejuice (watch it HERE).  Winona Ryder is reprising the role of Lydia Deetz. Catherine O’Hara is back as Lydia’s stepmother Delia. But now The Hollywood Reporter has been able to confirm that Jeffrey Jones, who played Lydia’s father Charles in the original movie, is not in the sequel. Few fans expected him to be, as Jones hasn’t gotten a lot of screen acting jobs since 2003, when he pled no contest to “hiring a 14-year-old boy to pose naked for photos, for which he was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.” He has been in a few movies since then, but his most substantial job was on the TV series Deadwood. He appeared on 35 episodes of that show from 2004 to 2006, then returned for Deadwood: The Movie in 2019.

Eagle-eyed fans spotted a picture of Jones on a tombstone glimpsed in the trailer that was released yesterday. The fact that his character is dead wouldn’t have necessarily been enough to keep him out of the movie, since the Beetlejuice films deal with ghosts and the afterlife… but no, Charles does not have a role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, living or dead.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was in development hell for decades before it finally got made. In 1990, Jonathan Gems was hired to write a sequel that was going to be titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. Burton considered having Daniel Waters rewrite that script, Pamela Norris did rewrite it, and Warner Bros. offered Kevin Smith the chance to do another rewrite. He turned it down. Seth Grahame-Smith was hired to write and produce a new version of a sequel in 2011. Mike Vukadinovich was brought on to rewrite his script in 2017.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners of Wednesday, have written the screenplay for Beetlejuice 2 that was actually filmed. Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing the sequel, which filmed in London before moving to Vermont and Massachusetts.

Here’s the official synopsis: Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

Keaton, Ryder, and O’Hara are joined in the cast by Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, Justin Theroux as a fellow named Rory, Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s wife, and Willem Dafoe as a law enforcement officer in the afterlife. Arthur Conti is also in there, in an unspecified role. 

What do you think of Jeffrey Jones only appearing in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as a picture on a tombstone? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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