When Beetlejuice hit theaters in 1988, Lydia Deetz was one of the early breakout roles for Winona Ryder. And while Ryder reteamed with director Tim Burton in 1990 on Edward Scissorhands, they have apparently been meeting for decades about a potential Beetlejuice sequel long before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice finally happened.
Ryder revealed the meetings during a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar. She added that “There were a lot of times my agents didn’t know that I was meeting up with him.” In the same story, Burton briefly spoke about some of the failed concepts for the sequel. “Beetlejuice Goes to Outer Space, Beetlejuice does whatever,” said Burton. “There’d been talk about it, but I never really understood why it was popular. And this was when people didn’t talk about sequels.”
Because the sequel took 36 years to come together, the new film will acknowledge a lot of changes in Lydia’s life since the last time she encountered Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice. The feature reveals that Lydia’s time with Beetlejuice has left her with the ability to perceive and speak to other ghosts, which she uses to host a TV series called Ghost House. However, the one ghost that Lydia can’t reach is her late husband, the father of Astrid Deetz (Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega), which is a source of conflict between Lydia and Astrid.
The story also notes that “Lydia is a pill-popping widow” who is dating her manager, Rory (Justin Theroux). However, the report also clearly states that Lydia is not in love with Rory, so that relationship may not survive the film.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will hit theaters on September 4.
