The 1988 release of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice features Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, who nearly marries Beetlejuice due to an agreement save for Barbara Maitland, who banishes him to the Netherworld. In the new sequel, Michael Keaton’s hideous character resurfaces with his intention of having Lydia as his bride unchanged.
The upcoming film details Beetlejuice’s past before the Maitland’s attic and how he lived in the last four decades. It will also unveil more mysteries, including the story behind Lyida’s ring and Beetlejuice’s true reason for wanting Lydia.
Monica Belluci’s missing finger
Beetlejuice 2 exposes that the detached finger from Beetlejuice’s pocket, while he intended to bring out the wedding ring in the original, belonged to his wife, played by Monica Belluci. During the scene, Beetlejuice pleads with Lydia that she “meant nothing to me, nothing at all.” Beetlejuice’s supposed ex looks dead without her ring finger in the trailer, proving something more sinister about Beetlejuice.
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The teaser also shows new faces like Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, and Justin Theroux as Rory. Keaton previously noted that Beetlejuice 2 is “done as close to the way we made it the first time,” with Burton adding that it will focus more on the living than the dead. The first look also shows Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson working with Bellucci’s Dolores to hunt down her former lover in the new installment.
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Lydia was Beetlejuice’s key to living in the mortal world and avoiding Dolores’ revenge as their marriage ended badly, hence his reason for wanting Lydia as a wife. Some argue that the union would have benefitted the Maitlands and Lydia since Beetlejuice promised to save them, but this could have been out of desperation.
At the original’s end, Beetlejuice remains in the afterlife waiting room, and the sequel will show how he escapes and what happened there. Before the recent release, there was an attempt to follow up the first part with Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian by screenwriter Jonathan Gem, which features the Deetz moving to Hawaii to build their resort, but it never happened. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will hit theaters in the U.S. starting September 6.