Tim Burton is 'sure' he will collaborate with Johnny Depp again, but not on an “Edward Scissorhands” sequel

"Certain things are best left on their own, and that, for me, is one of them," the director said of the 1990 fantasy film.

Just because Beetlejuice was resurrected to haunt a new generation, doesn't mean Edward Scissorhands will get the same treatment.

Tim Burton might be riding high on the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but the filmmaker has made it clear that this doesn't mean each of his long beloved films will get their own legacy sequels. Burton believes that some of them are better left untouched, including the film that marked his first time directing his frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp.

"There are certain films I don’t want to make a sequel to,” Burton told IndieWire at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday. Asked about the possibility of continuing Edward Scissorhands story, he said, "I didn’t want to make a sequel to that because it felt like a one-off thing. I didn’t want to have a sequel for The Nightmare Before Christmas because it also felt like a one-off thing. Certain things are best left on their own, and that, for me, is one of them.”

Related: Tim Burton isn't interested in making new superhero movies

While the lost soul with razorblade hands won't be getting a second outing, the Burton-Depp partnership may live on. Asked if he sees another collaboration with Depp on the horizon, Burton replied, "Well, I’m sure there will be.”

Referencing his approach to casting, he continued, “I never feel like, 'Oh, I’m going to use this and that actor.' It usually has to be based on the project I’m working on. That’s what film is all about. It’s collaboration and bouncing ideas off the people around you.”

Burton hasn't directed a film involving Depp since 2012’s Dark Shadows, but the actor remains a recurring element in his filmography. The pair have worked together on eight titles total, including, 1994's Ed Wood, 1999's Sleepy Hollow, 2005's Corpse Bride, 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2007's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and 2010's Alice in Wonderland.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

A future film would mark the duo's first collaboration following Depp's divisive defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. After a six-week televised trial in mid-2022, a jury ruled in favor of Depp, determining that Heard intentionally and maliciously defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean star when she wrote her 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post about her experiences as a domestic abuse survivor. (She scored a small victory as the jury found partly in favor of her defamation countersuit.) Heard later filed an appeal but withdrew it in late 2022 and settled.

Prior to the contentious legal dispute, the duo were involved in a 2020 U.K. trial, which led to Depp suing British newspaper The Sun for libel after it referred to him as a "wife-beater" while addressing Heard's abuse allegations. He lost after a judge ruled that the article was "substantially true" and "the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard."

Related: Edward Scissorhands 25th anniversary: Tim Burton on the Johnny Depp film's legacy

Since then, the actor and musician has been easing back into the public eye. His most recent roles include Colonel Joll in 2019's Waiting for the Barbarians, W. Eugene Smith in 2020's Minamata, and Louis XV in 2023's Jeanne du Barry. Earlier this year, he attended the San Sebastián International Film Festival for the premiere of his second directorial effort, Modi — Three Days on the Wing of Madness, where he noted that his life has been turned into a "soap opera" in the midst of the highly publicized legal dispute.