A climactic scene from Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, and Catherine O’Hara.
Beetlejuice’s resounding success allowed Tim Burton the ability to become bolder in his projects, with studios that would back his dark, gothic-horror vision. Following Beetlejuice, Burton would tackle one of the greatest superheroes of all time with Batman. Burton had seen the darker side of Bruce Wayne/Batman and the gothic themes that plague Gotham, wanting to put his own spin on the classic comic series. Once Beetlejuice became a surprise hit, studios greenlit his version of Batman but caused controversy over his casting choice. Burton’s top choice to play the caped crusader was Michael Keaton, a decision that caused animosity among fans and studio executives, but is one audiences should have seen coming from an Easter egg in Beetlejuice.
In a terrifying sequence that follows Adam and Barbara accidentally being exorcised by the Deitzes, Winona Ryder's Lydia summons Betelgeuse for help before pointing his tricks at the Maitlands and Lydia themselves. He exits Adam’s elaborate model town in a new form, appearing to have a circus-style merry-go-round as a hat, long arms with hammers as hands, and bat wings sprouting from his ears. The hammer and merry-go-round contribute to scaring the Deitzes’ guests, but the bat wings are a small detail meant to foreshadow Tim Burton’s Batman and the fact Betelguese’s actor Michael Keaton was to be his Bruce Wayne.
Burton had been in the development of Batman for about three years before Beetlejuice granted it the greenlight, and wanted to put Keaton at the forefront because he enjoyed working with the actor. He also believed Bruce Wayne and Keaton were both men of average build who needed a costume to make themselves scary and they weren’t square-jawed, buff intimidators. The pairing of Burton, a macabre, artsy director, and Keaton, a typecast comedy actor known for Mr. Mom, didn’t sit right with comic book fans at the time, leading tens of thousands of protest letters to be sent to Warner Bros. While the controversy was immense, nobody could have predicted the profound change their collaboration would have on both of their careers.
Following the success of Beetlejuice, the duo were both criticized as the wrong choices to take on the character of Batman, so the critical acclaim that Burton received for his direction and The Dark Knight trilogy to fully explore the darker nuances of Batman’s life.
