Yahoo Movies Jenna Ortega praises Michael Keaton's transformation for Beetlejuice 2
Beetlejuice 2 star Jenna Ortega has praised Michael Keaton's transformation into the iconic Betelgeuse.
The sequel, officially titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, will see Keaton reprise his role, alongside the returning Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara as Lydia and Delia Deetz, respectively.
Speaking to Empire, Ortega, who has joined the horror as Lydia's daughter Astrid, revealed that she was blown away when she first saw Keaton as the bio-exorcist.
"It was like an animal with a gun had just walked into the room," she said.
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"To watch him physically change and appear and Michael Keaton to be gone, and for me to be dealing with this Betelgeuse guy... it blew my mind."
The film's director Tim Burton also shared his praise for Keaton's portrayal of the spooky character, saying: "It was like he was possessed by a demon, because he just went back into it," with O'Hara adding: "It was insane."
The film also stars The Leftovers actor Justin Theroux, Poor Things' Willem Dafoe, House of the Dragon's Arthur Conti and James Bond's Monica Bellucci.
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Details of their roles are being kept under wraps for now, although Dafoe previously revealed he was playing a dead B-movie star, while Theroux will portray a character named Rory.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the writing team behind Smallville and Into the Badlands, have co-written the script. The story came from It Chapter Two's Seth Grahame-Smith.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice picks up decades after the first movie with a death in the family. "That's all I will say," teased Burton. "There's something that happens that sets things in motion."
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The director added that he wasn't going to do a sequel "unless it was right" and revealed that the story eventually came when he decided to centre it on the three generations of Deetz women.
"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," he explained.
"That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it."
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be released in cinemas on September 6.
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