Winona Ryder Thought ‘Beetlejuice 2’ Would Have Lydia Be a Spinster

Tim Burton’s long-awaited “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” brings Winona Ryder back to the role of Lydia Deetz after 36 years. Ryder was only 15 years old when she filmed the original “Beetlejuice,” and she recently told Entertainment Weekly that she never predicted her character would become a mother in the sequel.

“I would hope there’s that thing of wanting to keep the essence of the first one, but then imagine this whole life that’s happened,” Ryder said. “I never thought about Lydia ever being a mom. I thought she would just be this spinster by choice in that attic, but I think that’s where the incredible Jenna Ortega comes in. She answered a ton of those questions, and it felt so right.”

While the plot of the “Beetlejuice” sequel remains largely under wraps, the film’s emotional through line is the strained relationship between Ryder’s Lydia and her daughter Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega. Original cast members Michal Keaton and Catherine O’Hara are also back for the sequel, with newcomers including Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux and Monica Bellucci.

“I just remember every year or two, we’d get together,” Ryder said about Burton’s sequel brainstorming. “And, you know, he’d pace around and be like, ‘This isn’t like a sequel. It’s just like things happen in life, and I really want to know what’s going on with them now.’”

In an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year, Ortega described Astrid as “weird, but in a different way and not in the way you’d assume, I would say.”

“The relationship between Lydia and Astrid, my character, is very important,” she added of the sequel. “And it’s also really strange because it’s a lot of catching up and putting the pieces together of what’s gone on in Lydia’s life since, which is nice, I think, for anybody who loves the character and is excited to see her again.”

Keaton told SiriusXM in March that the mother-daughter backbone in the sequel gives it an emotional heft the original did not have.

“The [original] was so fun and exciting visually. [The sequel is] all that but really beautiful and interestingly emotional here and there,” Keaton said. “I wasn’t ready for that. It’s great.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” opens in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros. after world premiering on opening night of the Venice Film Festival.