Willem Dafoe reveals his ghostly role in Beetlejuice 2: 'So I'm a dead person'

Netherworld beware — Willem Dafoe is joining Michael Keaton in the Land of the Dead.

As previously announced, both actors are set to appear in Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel to the '80s classic, Beetlejuice. But while Keaton will obviously reprise the titular role, Dafoe’s part in the film has been kept under wraps. Until now. 

During a new interview with Variety, the Poor Things actor revealed some oddly specific details about his role in Beetlejuice 2: apparently, Dafoe plays as an undead action star turned detective. 

“I haven’t seen any footage yet, but it was fun to do,” Dafoe said of the film, which features returning stars Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara. “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 adds that because of his character’s skill set, he becomes a detective in the afterlife but that new role is “colored by the fact of who I was [when I was alive]: a B movie action star.”

Few other details have been revealed about the plot of the upcoming movie, but Keaton has openly discussed the joys of getting the gang back together.

"Beetlejuice is the most f---in’ fun you can have working,” he told Empire Magazine earlier this year. “It’s so fun, it’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie. There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move."

The original Beetlejuice starred Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as recently deceased newlyweds whose spirits remain stuck in their country residence. When a new insufferable couple (O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and their morose teenage daughter (Ryder) move into the house, self-proclaimed bio-exorcist Beetlejuice is summoned to help scare them away.

Along with the returning cast members, the sequel features Wednesday star Jenna Ortega as daughter to Ryder’s Lydia. Justin Theroux is also featured in an undisclosed role.

Beetlejuice 2 is slated to arrive in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024.

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