Beetlejuice 2 Is Winona Ryder’s Perfect Stranger Things Follow-Up

With Stranger Things coming to an end after season 5, Beetlejuice 2 presents the perfect nostalgic follow-up project for star Winona Ryder.

Beetlejuice 2 Is Winona Ryder’s Perfect Stranger Things Follow-Up

After the end of Stranger Things season 5, Beetlejuice 2 could prove to be the perfect thematic follow-up project for Winona Ryder. After more than 30 years of rumors, Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, has finally moved the sequel to the 1988’s Beetlejuice into early development. The original Beetlejuice starred up-and-coming actress Winona Ryder as goth teen Lydia Deetz, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the newly-deceased Maitland couple, and Michael Keaton as the title poltergeist.

Since 2016, Winona Ryder has starred in Netflix’s hit horror sci-fi drama series Stranger Things as Joyce Byers, with the role earning the actress significant acclaim. Stranger Things’ mid-1980s setting has officially brought Ryder back to her roots in terms of the era depicted and integral horror genre, leading to more anticipation for similar roles in the future. Following several years as a leading figure on the show, the widely popular Stranger Things is officially ending after season 5, which is expected to conclude sometime around 2024. Ryder currently has no projects lined up post-Stranger Things, but Beetlejuice 2’s continued development is apt to change this.

Although no script, story, or casting announcements have been made for Beetlejuice 2, it’s been widely speculated that the sequel will call for the returns of Ryder and Keaton. Winona Ryder’s career found a massive resurgence upon her casting in Stranger Things, with the actress’s notoriety being one of the most significant draws for the series early on. In fact, Ryder’s rise to fame for her roles in the 1980s cult classics Beetlejuice and Heathers are likely the reason why she was recruited for Stranger Things’ nostalgic ‘80s pop-culture-obsessed premise. As such, Ryder has already proven through Stranger Things that she can return to the nostalgia of the era flawlessly, with the sentimentality for the ‘80s inevitably playing a major role in Beetlejuice 2’s appeal.

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer also explained that they didn’t want the timeline of their series to pass 1988 so as to avoid paradoxes with the teens seeing Beetlejuice – and thus a woman who looks remarkably like a young Joyce Byers – in theaters. While Stranger Things had to tip-toe around the role that launched Ryder into fame, Beetlejuice 2 will obviously be fully embracing her goth 1988 character. Joyce and Lydia also share certain similarities in terms of how their openness to the supernatural, with both being deemed bizarre for either their acceptance of ghosts or communication through the Upside Down.

While Winona Ryder certainly required no priming for Beetlejuice 2, her beloved role as Joyce in Stranger Things is the perfect warm-up for audiences as they yearn for her return to comedic supernatural themes. If Beetlejuice 2 moves beyond the early development stage, it will be Ryder’s very first sequel to a film she originated and her first collaboration with Tim Burton in over a decade, with their last project together being 2012’s Frankenweenie. Considering Michael Keaton has already returned to the ‘80s as he reprises his role as Batman in 2023’s The Flash, Beetlejuice 2 will be arriving at the perfect time for Winona Ryder and the rest of the cast to embrace the era’s nostalgia.