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Will Jeffrey Jones appear in Tim Burton‘s hugely anticipated Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?
That’s the question on the mind of eagle-eyed fans of the upcoming Warner Bros. film’s trailer, who noticed a glimpse of the actor on a headstone in a funeral scene. But a rep for Jones confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor does not appear in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
The funeral is attended by Catherine O’Hara (playing Delia Deetz, second wife of Jones’ Charles Deetz in the original film), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz, Charles’ daughter with his first, deceased wife) and Jenna Ortega (a newcomer to the franchise, who plays Astrid Deetz, Lydia’s teenage daughter).
In Beetlejuice, Charles is a big-city real estate developer who buys a Connecticut home after the previous owners — the Maitlands, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis — die in a car accident.
The Maitlands soon learn they are ghosts and watch in horror as Delia proceeds to turn their quaint farmhouse into a gaudy, postmodern funhouse.
Charles’ death in the sequel did not necessarily rule out his participation in the sequel, as the film follows the Maitlands’ misadventures of the afterlife.
A gifted physical comedian, Jones, 77, stole scenes in a string of films throughout the 1980s, most notably playing Emperor Joseph II in 1984’s Amadeus and Ed Rooney, the principal in 1986’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Working with Burton, he followed Beetlejuice with performances in 1994’s Ed Wood and 1999’s Sleepy Hollow.
He worked far less in the years following a 2003 plea of no contest to hiring a 14-year-old boy to pose naked for photos, for which he was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.
But Jones did play real-life newspaperman A.W. Merrick on HBO’s Deadwood throughout the show’s run from 2004 to 2006. He reprised the role for Deadwood: The Movie in 2019 — but amid a more sensitive, post-#MeToo climate, his presence in the narrative was greatly reduced.