Movies It's showtime! Michael Keaton breaks free in first Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailer After 36 long years, the juice is on the loose once again. By Emlyn Travis Emlyn Travis Emlyn Travis is a news writer at Entertainment Weekly with over five years of experience covering the latest in entertainment. A proud Kingston University alum, Emlyn has written about music, fandom, film, television, and awards for multiple outlets including MTV News, Teen Vogue, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Paper Magazine, Dazed, and NME. She joined EW in August 2022. EW's editorial guidelines Published on March 21, 2024 05:05PM EDT Now this is going to be one extra juicy reunion. After 36 long years, Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice is back and ready to wreak havoc upon the town of Winter River once again in the first trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to director Tim Burton’s 1988 film. Set to the sound of a children's choir singing the instantly recognizable "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," the clip opens with three generations of the Deetz family — grandmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), mom Lydia (Winona Ryder), and granddaughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) — all attending an undisclosed funeral together. Amid all the turmoil, Astrid is able to sneak off into the family’s attic, where she discovers the miniature model of Winter River used to contain Beetlejuice/Betelgeuse until someone makes the disastrous decision to utter his name three times. Which, of course, is exactly what appears to happen next. Lydia runs into the attic just in time to witness the model crumble in half before Beetlejuice proudly rises from its ashes, opens his arms, and declares, “The juice is loose!” Burton previously told EW that seeing Keaton sport his legendary black-and-white striped costume and face paint again was “a weird out-of-body experience." "He just got back into it,” he explained. "It was kind of scary for somebody who was maybe not that overly interested in doing it. It was such a beautiful thing for me to see all the cast, but he, sort of like demon possession, just went right back into it." While Burton and Keaton had floated the idea of working together on a potential sequel over the years, the director said that they were only interested in revisiting the film if they had a story with an “emotional hook” that they could get behind. Burton found that connection in Alfred Gough and Miles Millar's script, which is based on a story they created with Seth Grahame-Smith. Michael Keaton in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'. Parisa Taghizadeh Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder, and Justin Theroux in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'. Parisa Taghizadeh "I so identified with the Lydia character, but then you get to all these years later, and you take your own journey, going from cool teenager to lame adult, back and forth again," Burton said. "That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it." In addition to the Deetz family, the film also stars Justin Theroux (The Leftovers), Monica Bellucci (Spectre), Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon), and Willem Dafoe (Poor Things). Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — don't say it again! — dances its way into theaters on Sept. 6. Watch the trailer above. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice... Beetlejuice returns in first look at Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder What you need to remember from the previous Ghostbusters movies before seeing Frozen Empire Watch Ray Parker Jr., Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson perform Ghostbusters theme song with classroom instruments