“I identify with Lydia” – Exclusive

It's been five years since Tim Burton's last film hit theaters: his live-action version of the Disney film Dumbo. In the years since, the director has moved away from feature films and into the streaming game with his hit Netflix series. Wednesday, imagining the Addams Family daughter solving spooky mysteries at a supernatural high school. But now Burton is officially back on the big screen with Beetle juice Beetle juice – a long-awaited sequel to his classic 1988 comedy, reuniting the director with Michael Keaton's chattering ghoul and Winona Ryder's outsider Lydia Deetz. While the sequels may be viewed with skepticism by audiences, make no mistake: this is deeply personal territory for cinema's greatest gothic auteur.

“I actually kind of lost interest in the film industry,” Burton says. Empire world exclusive Beetle juice Beetle juice issue. “I felt like I was tired of the studios,” he admits, “I was tired of all that stuff.” But Wednesday left him creatively rejuvenated, and when that series' writers – Alfred Gough and Miles Millar – wrote the script that would become Beetle juice Beetle juice, the result was a story that connected with Burton on a personal level. “From the first (film), I really identified with Lydia,” he says. “He was a character that I understood, who was close to my heart.” This, too, became his entry into the sequel. “The new film has become very personal for me, through the character of Lydia,” he explains. “What happened to Lydia?” You know, what happens to people? What is happening to all of us? What's your journey from being a weird goth teenager to what's happening to you 35 years later?

Because, even though Beetlejuice is billed as the title, it was used sparingly in the original film – an agent of chaos deployed in short, shocking bursts. And in the sequel, it's the Deetz family (Lydia de Ryder, Catherine O'Hara as his mother Delia, and WednesdayJenna Ortega as his daughter Astrid) takes center stage, with Lydia's evolution particularly gripping Burton's dark heart. “Sometimes, as we get older, we lose ourselves a little,” explains the filmmaker. “That’s exactly how I feel and feel. You follow a path – for me, I started making films, I make good ones, I make bad ones, you go on a journey. So that's what made it more important and more personal to me, all those feelings. You have relationships that change you, you have children that change you. After all these years, it became the reason I did it. I identified with Lydia then, and I identify with her now. Prepare for some real heartbreak amidst all these grisly events.

Read Empireis a total world exclusive Beetle juice Beetle juice cover feature – on the set of the film and talking to Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux about what lies ahead – in the July 2024 issue , on sale Thursday June 6. Pre-order a copy online here. Beetle juice Beetle juice arrives in UK cinemas from September 6.