Beetlejuice vs. Betelgeuse: What The Real Name Of Michael Keaton’s Poltergeist Is & What It Means

Warning: spoilers ahead for Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceMichael Keaton once again donned the striped suit of one of his most iconic characters in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which further explored the character’s backstory without fully revealing his real name. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice stars several familiar frequent Tim Burton collaborators, and the story picks up with the Deetz family many years after the original ended. Keaton’s mischievous poltergeist returned to cause significantly more chaos, and provided more details about what makes Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

One of the key details that the original never addressed was the origins of Beetlejuice, or Betelgeuse’s name. While he is familiarly known as “Beetlejuice” in popular culture, there is an alternative spelling featured on multiple occasions in the original movie. The 2024 sequel never reveals what his actual name in life was, but it gives far more insight into Beetlejuice’s life, death, and afterlife before the events of the original Beetlejuice.

Betelgeuse Is Technically The Correct Name Of Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice Character

That’s how his name is written

While Michael Keaton’s self-proclaimed bio-exorcist is known in popular culture as “Beetlejuice”, that is not the character’s true name. As seen on his tombstone in Adam Maitland’s model town, the poltergeist’s real name is “Betelgeuse” when written out. That spelling is still pronounced as “Beetlejuice”, and given the importance of the name being spoken, it makes sense that the peculiar spelling is simplified.

Alec Baldwin’s Adam Maitland even pronounces it incorrectly at first, invalidating it as one of the three mentions that summons him from the afterlife. The simpler pronunciation, along with the anglicized spelling, made the movie more digestible for the English-speaking audience. From a marketing perspective, the “Betelgeuse” spelling could be pronounced several ways phonetically, so simplifying it into the sillier, easier-to-pronounce “Beetlejuice” was a benefit in that regard as well, even if it not actually correct.

“Betelgeuse” Is The Name Of The Night Sky’s Brightest Star – What It Means For Michael Keaton’s Character

The name could still carry a hidden meaning

Per the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star that is the second-brightest star in the famous Orion constellation. The name itself is derived from an Arabic term meaning “the giant’s shoulder”, which coincides with its position in the Orion constellation. It is considered one of the brightest stars in the night sky from Earth’s viewpoint. As but a small but significant part of a larger whole, it was theorized that the star could actually be a clue as to how and why Betelgeuse got his name.

The star Betelgeuse is part of a larger constellation, and the thought was that ghostly Betelgeuse could therefore be part of a larger whole as well. Betelgeuse may be no more than the tip of the spear when it comes to supernatural chaos and his particular brand of “bio-exorcism.” Beetlejuice Beetlejuice didn’t confirm this to be the case, although to be fair the sequel didn’t dig deep into Betelgeuse’s name, as there were greater concerns for his character–namely, his vengeful ex-wife.

Beetlejuice 2 Doesn’t Reveal Betelgeuse’s Real Name, But It Reveals His Backstory

The 2024 Sequel Shows Who Betelgeuse Was And How He Died

One of the most entertaining sequences of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is its exploration of Betelgeuse’s history on Earth. As the sequel reveals, Betelgeuse was a grave robber during the 14th century during the wrath of the Black Death, the bubonic plague that killed millions of Europeans. He met his wife while robbing bodies, and as it turns out, their marriage was short-lived; she actually married him as a means to gain supernatural power, and she poisoned him on the night they were married to sacrifice him.

She revealed her plan to him prematurely, as the poison was slow-acting enough for him to take his own vengeance and chop her to bits before dying himself. As opposed to journeying to the Great Beyond or being trapped on Earth as a ghost, Betelgeuse became a civil servant, working in the bureaucracy of the Afterlife and the Neitherworld before branching out to create his own independent bio-exorcism organization. Beetlejuice Beetelejuice never touches on what Betelgeuse’s real name might be, but with the box office success of the sequel, revealing it in a third movie certainly seems possible.

Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica