Beetlejuiece Beetlejuice's new ing cast and different story, Beetlejuice 2 ultimately treads similar ground to its forerunner, and centers on Betelgeuse’s continuing obsession with Lydia. At the same time, this sequel throws Jenna Ortega into the mix as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, drawing parallels with the characterization of Lydia herself as a misunderstood teenager in the first movie.

Meanwhile, the only other returning character in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is Lydia’s stepmother Delia, as Catherine O’Hara reprises her role from the 1988 cult classic. Despite the sequel’s emphasis on mother-daughter relationships, however, it misses an opportunity to delve further into the backstory of Lydia Deetz herself. The first movie portrayed her as a peculiar young girl who had a difficult relationship with Delia and her father, Charles, and for some reason had the ability to see ghosts. Yet we still don’t know how or why she came to be in that situation before moving to Winter River, Connecticut.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Did An Excellent Job Explaining Beetlejuice's Backstory

The Sequel Explains When & Where Betelgeuse Lived As Well As How He Died

On the other hand, a lot of the Delores, who’s played by Monica Bellucci in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and the two married before Betelgeuse was fatally poisoned by his wife. This backstory is not only highly imaginative, it suits a character as gothic and off-the-wall as Betelgeuse down to the ground, and explains why he’s so obsessed with returning to the land of the living.

Betelgeuse can be brought back to the world of the living permanently by marrying a living human being, as explained in the first Beetlejuice movie.

What’s more, Betelgeuse’s Delores subplot is imbued with the same subversive humor that made Michael Keaton’s character so iconic in the first Beetlejuice movie. When he’s attempting to marry Lydia Deetz for the second time, for example, Delores bursts in with her body seemingly sewn back into one piece, and Betelgeuse remarks that she looks “so put together”. He then dresses Lydia’s boyfriend Rory in a T-shirt with “I ” printed on it, as he tries to convince his ex-wife that she doesn’t really need him.

I Wish Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Had Focused More On Lydia's Past Too

We Still Don’t Know How Lydia Got Her Powers Or What Happened To Her Mother

As much as Beetlejuice 2 delves into Betelgeuse’s backstory, though, it fails to explain what turned Lydia Deetz into a ghost-seeing goth girl in the first place. The sequel deals with Lydia’s own struggles with motherhood, and the changing dynamic in her difficult relationship with Delia, her stepmother, as she reaches middle age. But it doesn’t address what happened to Lydia’s real mother, why she never appeared in the first Beetlejuice movie, and the aspects of Lydia’s childhood that might have led her to seek substitute parents in the undead.

While Jenna Ortega’s Astrid is a great new character for the Beetlejuice franchise, her storyline could have been paired with some form of retrospective take on Lydia’s adolescence. It turns out that Astrid too has acquired the same psychic abilities as her mother, yet it’s never explained how Lydia came to have these abilities in the first place.

Lydia's Backstory Should Be A Key Part Of Beetlejuice 3

Just As Beetlejuice 2 Filled In Betelgeuse’s Background, The Next Sequel Can Do The Same With Lydia

Now that we know that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is going to be followed up with the Beetlejuice 3 has the opportunity to fill the gaps that still remain in Lydia Deetz’ backstory. Perhaps it’s Lydia’s missing mother who’s the key to the psychic powers she and her daughter have acquired, and there could be some event in her childhood, before the events of the first Beetlejuice, that proved key to her character development. ​​​​​​​

In any case, the Betelgeuse backstory of Beetlejuice 2 gives us hope that the next movie can focus on the truth behind Lydia’s interest in the afterlife. As great as Betelgeuse is as a character, Lydia is ultimately the real hero of the franchise, a notion that the third movie should embrace.