Winona Ryder is reprising her role as Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice 2, which will bring her character to an entirely different age and phase of life. After 35 years in development hell, Beetlejuice 2 is finally happening with Tim Burton returning as the director and original stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara reprising their characters of Beetlejuice, Lydia, and Delia Deetz, respectively. While Beetlejuice 2’s story details are being kept under wraps, new casting reveals of Scream Queen Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter, Willem Dafoe as a police officer in the afterlife, and Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s wife give hints to the sequel’s conflicts and updates on the original characters.
In the original Beetlejuice movie, Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz is a self-proclaimed “strange and unusual” gothic teenager who befriends the newly-deceased Adam and Barbara Maitland, who seek the assistance of devious poltergeist Beetlejuice to haunt the Deetzes out of their home. Beetlejuice concluded with Lydia, her father Charles, and stepmother Delia learning to live harmoniously with the Maitlands after trapping Beetlejuice back in the Neitherworld, but 36 years later, the Deetzes are back in another battle with Keaton’s ghost. This time around, Lydia is a mom who must protect her own daughter from Beetlejuice’s mischief, and she’ll surprisingly be much older in Beetlejuice 2 than her parents were during the 1988 movie’s events.
Lydia Deetz Will Likely Be Around 52 In Beetlejuice 2
While Lydia Deetz’s age was never explicitly stated in Beetlejuice, she’s confirmed to be a high school student who is likely about 16 years old, which was Winona Ryder's age when the original 1988 movie was released. Lydia would thus be around 52 years old in Beetlejuice 2, as the sequel is scheduled to premiere in theaters over 36 years later on September 6, 2024. Winona Ryder’s exciting return as Lydia Deetz in 2024 will also coincide with the actress's age being 52 years old.
During Beetlejuice 2’s story, Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz will be older than the ages of all the main adult characters in the original movie, including Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones’ Delia and Charles Deetz as well as Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ Adam and Barbara Maitland. The characters’ ages aren’t stated in Beetlejuice, but when the film debuted in 1988, O’Hara was 34, Jones was 41, Baldwin was 29, and Davis was 32 years old. If the title character Beetlejuice died at the same age that actor Michael Keaton was when the original movie premiered, then he was only 36 years old when he became a ghost. Of course, Beetlejuice lived through the Black Plague in the 14th century, so he’s been around for nearly 700 years by Beetlejuice 2’s timeline.
How Old Will Jenna Ortega's Beetlejuice 2 Character Be?
While Winona Ryder’s character seemingly reflected her own age in the original movie, this isn’t apt to be the case for Tim Burton's new frequent collaborator Jenna Ortega’s new character in Beetlejuice 2. Ortega is playing the daughter of Lydia, who is expected to be a teenager in high school to reflect the original characterization of Lydia, though she could be slightly older. Lydia’s daughter will likely be around 16-18 years old when battling Michael Keaton’s character, whereas Jenna Ortega will be 21 when Beetlejuice 2 premieres in 2024. Considering Ortega played 16-year-old Wednesday Addams in Tim Burton’s Wednesday season 1, which debuted in November 2022, the director will likely still have the actress play a high-school-aged teen again in Beetlejuice 2.
