Jenna Ortega, who stars in Wednesday, has received an offer for a significant part in the highly anticipated follow-up to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, and later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, Jenna Ortega is currently in negotiations to portray the daughter of Winona Ryder’s character Lydia Deetz in the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel, which has faced significant delays for over ten years. Furthermore, Sneider has disclosed that Michael Keaton is set to reprise his role as the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice, while Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder will also make their return. THR has affirmed that Tim Burton is expected to direct the sequel.
Beetlejuice, which hit theaters in 1988, still holds a revered place in the hearts of many horror fans. The movie tells the story of a deceased couple who return as ghosts to their former home, enlisting the mischievous Betelgeuse (played by Keaton) from the Netherworld to scare off its new occupants. The original movie starred Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the couple, with Davis expressing her desire to return for the sequel. The film earned $74.7 million globally on a $15 million budget and won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and three Saturn Awards. Despite this success, Burton has been evasive when questioned about a Beetlejuice 2 sequel, but it was confirmed in February of last year that Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, was in the early stages of developing it. The last known attempt at a sequel was Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which Burton and his team attempted to create in the 1990s before the director shifted his priorities.
Jenna Ortega’s stardom is on the ascent
Thanks to her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Wednesday, directed by Burton for several episodes, Jenna Ortega’s star in Hollywood has been shining brightly. The Addams Family spinoff series broke Netflix’s viewership records, becoming the second-most watched English language TV show in the streaming platform’s history, following only Stranger Things Season 4. It also set Nielsen streaming records and was nominated for two awards at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Actress for Ortega.
In the upcoming Season 2 of Wednesday, confirmed by the actor in a “thank you” video last January, Jenna Ortega will return to her acclaimed role. Additionally, Ortega will appear as Tara Carpenter in Scream VI, the sixth installment in the popular slasher franchise, which is scheduled to hit theaters on March 10. In the film, Ortega’s character Tara Carpenter and other survivors of the Ghostface killings in Woodsboro flee to New York City to start anew, but soon find themselves in peril once again when a new killer emerges and embarks on a brutal killing spree.