20 Wild Horror Movie Casting Choices We Almost Got
7. Sammy Davis Jr. - Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice)
It really isn't easy to imagine anyone not called Michael Keaton playing Betelgeuse, but Tim Burton originally had very different plans indeed.
Burton first envisioned musician-actor-comedian Sammy Davis Jr. for the part, because early versions of the Beetlejuice script described the character as a winged demonic creature who took the form of a Middle Eastern or Black man.
Once Burton landed on Davis, subsequent drafts reportedly leaned increasingly into this, even having the character speak in a pidgin dialect, but producer David Geffen ultimately vetoed this casting suggestion and nudged Burton in the direction of Keaton instead.
Burton didn't need much convincing once he became familiar with Keaton's previous work, and the rest is history.
As absurdly talented as Davis was, and as interesting as his take on Betelgeuse might've been, the conception of the character clearly changed drastically once Keaton came onboard, and his final work in the role is absolutely incontestable.