Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Jenna Ortega is Tim Burton’s latest muse, and their collaboration is set to continue: On Wednesday, it was quite appropriately announced that Wednesday has been renewed for a third season. The duo were interviewed for a new piece from The Hollywood Reporter, in which Wednesday showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar say they’d like to do seven seasons of the show. That seems like a tall order for a star as in-demand as Jenna Ortega, and an artist as eclectic as Tim Burton. Burton isn’t even sure he wants to return to Beetlejuice; when THR noted that Warner Bros. had promised development would start on a threequel “imminently,” Burton remarked, “Really? Nobody told me. Maybe I’ve been replaced.”
Reiterating the same logic he trotted out on the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice press tour, Burton said, “It took 35 years to make the second one, so by that time I’ll be 105. I know those odds are not good. I really, really enjoyed making this one, and [Warner Bros.] didn’t even really want to do it. We did it the same way I did the first one, with the actors doing improv. It was beautiful to see some of the old cast and have Jenna. But it’s like trying to re-create the Wednesday dance scene. I love the characters, but I don’t necessarily see it.”
Ortega speculated that perhaps she’d also be replaced (“Maybe [her character] Astrid dies and goes to heaven instead [of the films’ Netherworld]. They should just take Baby Beetlejuice on tour and send him to Hawaii”). Certainly, she wouldn’t sign on for a threequel without Burton involved. “I also think anybody would be really wrong to get behind that project. Without him involved, what is it?” She said. “It is what it is because of Tim. There’s no other film you can compare Beetlejuice to. So why would you do that? That would be a tad disrespectful.”
Safe to say Burton would indeed feel disrespected if Beetlejuice 3 went on without him at the helm. “I feel very proprietary about everything I do, even if I don’t own the characters,” he explained. “When they did the [Beetlejuice Broadway musical], I got pissed.” Warner Bros., beware!
