Beetlejuice 2: Willem Dafoe Drops Major Spoilers About His Role

Contains spoilers about "Beetlejuice 2"

Willem Dafoe joined the stacked cast for the sequel "Beetlejuice 2" in May 2023, and now that principal photography has finally wrapped on the film the venerable actor is starting to drop details about his character.

Michael Keaton is back as the energetic bio-exorcist Beetlejuice for the sequel, while Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara are also reprising their characters, Lydia and Delia Deetz, from the original film. "Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega joins the cast as Lydia's daughter, Astrid. Not much else has been known about "Beetlejuice 2" up to this point, apart from early word that Dafoe was playing a deceased police officer. 

But in an interview with Variety, the actor filled out his character's back story. "I play a police officer in the afterlife, so I'm a dead person. And in life I was a B-movie action star, but I had an accident and that's what sent me to the other side," Dafoe told Variety. "But because of my skills, I became a detective character in the afterlife. So that's my job. But it's colored by the fact of who I was [when I was alive]: a B movie action star."

Dafoe noted for the publication that it was a fun role to play and that he hasn't seen any footage from the movie yet.

"Beetlejuice 2," of course, is the long-awaited follow-up to director Tim Burton's 1988 supernatural comedy classic that followed the wild adventures of Michael Keaton's zany "Ghost with the Most." The sequel also stars Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice's wife, as well as Justin Theroux in an unspecified role.

Noting how "Beetlejuice 2" is the most fun he's had on a film set in a long time, Keaton promised in a June interview with Empire Magazine that like the original film, the supernatural sequel will rely on practical visual effects — a specific approach both he and Burton have always required when discussing ideas for the potential film over the years. "We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time," Keaton recalled for the publication. "Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something."

Despite delays in filming caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, "Beetlejuice 2" is still scheduled to debut in theaters September 6, 2024.