Beetlejuice 2 Almost Had A Title That Paid Tribute To A Horror Classic

Not pointing fingers, but let's just say a certain well-known entertainment news outlet committed a major faux pas by glancing at the "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" poster a tad too quickly and initially reporting the title was "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 A.D." (Dunno what all the fuss is about; personally, I'm looking forward to seeing that after watching "House of the Dragon JUNE MAX" later this year.) Funnily enough, however, that was actually pretty close to what Burton almost called the film. As he explained to EW:

"It's been, what? 35 years. [Editor's note: It's been 36 years.] So it didn't feel like 'Beetlejuice 2' to me. It didn't feel like that kind of a movie. The other one I thought of because one of my favorite Dracula movies is 'Dracula A.D. 1972,' was 'Beetlejuice 2024 A.D.' But this was a nice simple one."

Director Alan Gibson's "Dracula A.D. 1972," which is unique among Hammer's "Dracula" films for its then-modern setting, was one of several movies in which Lee played Bram Stoker's famous blood-sucker, starting with 1958's "Dracula." Lee himself would later go on to work with Burton multiple times in his twilight years, lending his voice to "Corpse Bride" and "Alice in Wonderland" while also showing up in the flesh in "Sleepy Hollow," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and "Dark Shadows." And while I cannot deny "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is simpler, "Beetlejuice 2024 A.D." would have certainly been a fitting moniker in keeping with the rest of Burton's oeuvre — not to mention the parallels between Dracula getting resurrected only to find himself in the '70s and the B-man being a demonic fish-out-of-water trying to navigate the 21st century.

"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" rises from the grave on September 6, 2024.