"Was focusing on something else"— Tim Burton reveals reason behind Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis's absence from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Tim Burton revealed the reason why Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis won't be returning to reprise their roles as the Maitlands in the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The director told People in an interview published on Wednesday, August 28, that he wanted to create a "whole new story" for the sequel of his 1988 horror comedy. The new storyline doesn't involve the Maitlands, and hence, Baldwin and Geena Davis' characters won't be in it. Talking about the forthcoming film without Baldwin and Davis, he said:

"I think the thing was for me I didn't want to just tick any boxes. So even though they [Baldwin and Davis] were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else."

In the first Beetlejuice movie in 1988, Baldwin and Davis played the Connecticut residents, Adam and Barbara Maitland. They accidentally drove off a bridge, died, and became ghosts. Their ghosts were trapped in their house, the same one that the Deetz family bought and lived in.

Davis, for her part, also confirmed back in April that she won't be in the remake. The actress told Entertainment Tonight that she has a theory as to why she's not coming back—"ghosts don't age." The Beetlejuice sequel is set many years after the events of the first movie.

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Winona Ryder and other OG cast members return in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

While fans won't be seeing Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, several of the original cast members of the Tim Burton-directed 1988 horror comedy will be returning to reprise their roles.

Michael Keaton will be back to play the titular crude demon Beetlejuice, and joining him are Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder to reprise their mother-daughter roles, Lydia and Delia Deetz. Their return is essential for Tim Burton's idea for the sequel. Talking about the sequel and its main characters, he told People:

"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. And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn't have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever."

O'Hara will be the fictional grandmother in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, with Ryder now a mother in the new timeline. Joining the duo is Jenna Ortega, who is going to play the youngest Deetz woman and Ryder's fictional daughter, Astrid.

As for Michael Keaton, he previously told People that Tim Burton and he have had conversations for years about bringing Beetlejuice back on the silver screen. However, they were both hesitant and cautious about needing to get it right. In the end, he said, they just went for it.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be coming to movie theaters on September 6 and will also star Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci.