The Untold Truth Of Beetlejuice

Given how popular it remains, the lack of a sequel to Beetlejuice is surprising, but it isn't for a lack of effort. Shortly after the first film, Burton wrote an outline that writer Jonathan Gems turned into a script titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. As Gems told Fangoria, "Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they're totally wrong together."

Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian was publicly announced in 1990, with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, and Catherine O'Hara all agreeing to reprise their roles for a story that found the characters heading to Hawaii to check up on a Deetz construction project: a casino built on top of a sacred Hawaiian burial ground. Along the way, Lydia visits the worlds of the undead, and Beetlejuice wins a surfing contest. But then Warner Bros. offered Burton total creative control on Batman Returns, so he — and Keaton — went off to do that. Interest died, the actors moved on, and the script was never filmed, nor was a subsequent effort by Beetlejuice co-writer Warren Skaaren called Beetlejuice in Love, in which Beetlejuice offers up his services to some new characters.

In 2011, Warner Bros. decided to explore a sequel once more, with a script potentially written by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Seth Grahame-Smith. That never turned into cinematic gold, either. Several attempts have been made since, but there's plenty of reason to be skeptical.