Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Director Tim Burton Explains the Maitlands' Absence in New Movie

I first saw Michael Keaton in Ron Howard's 1982 comedy "Night Shift," playing the manic idea man, Billy "Blaze" Blazejowski, opposite Henry Winkler as the shy, quiet, diffident Chuck Lumley. In those pre-Batman days, we didn't realize Keaton could be serious when the part required it, so when I saw a preview for the 1988 film "Beetlejuice," I went and saw it. And I laughed my tail off. It was a classic Tim Burton horror spoof that allowed Keaton to bring all of his considerable energy to the part, and it's still great fun today.

But considering that Alec Baldwin (yes, I know) and Geena Davis played primary characters as the Maitlands, the couple who hired Keaton's Beetlejuice to get some unwanted living people out of their house, it was mildly surprising to see they won't be reprising those roles in the sequel. But Tim Burton has at least told us why - sort of:

Director Tim Burton is shedding light on why Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are not appearing in the upcoming “Beetlejuice” sequel.
Davis and Baldwin starred in the 1988 classic as recently deceased couple Adam and Barbara Maitland, who find themselves at odds with the Deetz family – Lydia (Winona Ryder), Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and Charles (Jeffrey Jones) – after they move into the Connecticut home in which the Maitlands used to live.

It seems that the Maitlands, confined to their house in the afterlife in the original film, have found a way out in the years since. But Burton wanted to do something different in the second go-around, which takes place thirty-some years after the original:

But Burton wanted to tell a different story in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” telling People in an interview published on Thursday that “even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else.”
“I think the thing was for me I didn’t want to just tick any boxes,” Burton said. He later added, “A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time. That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter.”
Referring to O’Hara, Ryder and newcomer Jenna Ortega’s characters, respectively, Burton said the three generations of women would “be the nucleus” of the sequel.

That's good. Too many sequels try to recapture the feel of the original. It looks like Burton intends to take the characters in a new direction, and that is much more likely to make for a good movie.

WATCH: They Just Dropped the Official Trailer for the Sequel to '80s Classic 'Beetlejuice'

The new film looks promising so far. We can expect some of Burton's usual tricks, such as the striped snakes he seems so fond of - and really, what's up with that? But while my wife and I rarely make the 30-plus mile journey to our latest theater, we just might do it for this film when it hits the silver screen. While Keaton has shown he can do serious roles, it's maniacal, over-the-top roles like the famous Ghost with the Most that, after all these years, he still excels at. From the trailers, I'm going to say it looks good - so far.

We've come to expect very little from Hollywood anymore. We've seen it all: Endless remakes and "re-imaginings," franchises that should have been strangled to death in the first iteration but instead are now on their 16th sequel, and Academy-Award-baiting, hyper-woke grenades that induce no reaction other than repetitive yawning. Maybe Tim Burton will hit this one out of the park, just like he did in the 1988 original.

In a few weeks, we'll find out. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" will hit theaters on September 6th.