Michael Keaton didn’t want his titular character to dominate the screen in the upcoming sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The Birdman actor only had 17 minutes of screen time as the titular bio-exorcist in Tim Burton’s 1988 original and he wanted the sequel to stay true to this fact, despite him becoming a bigger star over the past 36 years.

“The idea was, no, no, no, you can’t load it up with Beetlejuice, that’ll kill it,” Keaton explained to GQ. “I think the Beetlejuice character doesn’t drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He’s more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.”

The 72-year-old also had another stipulation before he was willing to return as the ghost – he didn’t want his unpleasant character to be watered down to appeal to today’s audience.

“He’s a thing. He’s more of a thing than a he or a she, he’s more of an it,” Keaton stated. “And I’m not saying ‘it’ to be politically correct. I just viewed it as a force more than anything. I mean, there’s definitely strong male energy, like stupid male energy, which I love. You don’t want to touch that because it’s not like you go, ‘Well, it’s a new year and this thing would now act like that.'”

Keaton’s original co-stars Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder reprise their roles as Delia and Lydia Deetz in the sequel. Jenna Ortega plays Lydia’s daughter Astrid, who accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife.

The sequel, once again directed by Burton, will premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 28 August before hitting cinemas on 6 September.

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