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Beetlejuice 2 is a sequel to the original - but its also borrowing heavily from the Broadway musical (and here's how)

Scenes from the 2024 Beetlejuice 2 trailer seem to echo plot points from the Broadway show.

Features by Avery Kaplan, Contributing writer

Published on Fri Aug 30 2024

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If you yourself are strange and unusual, there’s already a good chance that you are familiar with the story of the original 1988 Beetlejuice movie. But as you rewatch the original to prepare yourself for the impending sequel, there’s another incarnation of the story that might prove to be more influential than one would expect.

The 2019 Beetlejuice Broadway musical adapts the original movie, making some significant departures from the storyline. But could these altered plot beats be echoed in the 2024 sequel?

The Funeral

When it comes to the 2019 musical, you don’t have to wait long for the narrative divergence to occur. Unlike the 1988 movie, which opens with scenes featuring the Maitlands, the musical opens with a funeral. This is for Lydia’s mother and Charles’s wife, Emily Deetz. Throughout the musical, navigating her mother’s death serves as Lydia’s central character arc. Meanwhile, Delia is his father’s new love interest.

It isn’t just fans of the original Beetlejuice movie who will notice the significant change right out of the gates. The first song, Lydia’s “Prologue: Invisible,” concludes with an interjection from Beetlejuice himself commenting on the fact that the story is “such a bold departure from the original source material.”

But could the trailer for the 2024’s Beetlejuice 2 suggest that this story alteration will be echoed in the upcoming sequel? The first scenes of the trailer show a funeral attended by the surviving members of the Deetz family.

However, this can’t be the funeral for Lydia’s mother, because Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara) is shown to be one of the mourners. Instead, it seems likely that the plot point echoes the one from the musical, but inverting the subject of the funeral from Lydia’s mother to Lydia’s father.

The Netherworld

That isn’t the only story beat from the Beetlejuice musical that’s echoed in the Beetlejuice 2 trailer, either. In the original movie, Lydia (Winona Ryder) does not visit the Netherworld. However, in the musical, she does. Motivated by a desire to see her late mother again, Lydia follows the Maitlands into the afterlife. Although she does not locate her mother there, the journey revitalizes her perspective and gives her a new lease on life.

But once again, this story beat does seem to transpire in the Beetlejuice 2 trailer. In multiple scenes, Lydia seems to be in the Netherworld with the titular demon (Michael Keaton). But just like in the musical, it’s unlikely Lydia will be meeting her late father in the afterlife (for a variety of in- and out-of-universe reasons).

However, there may be another inversion at play. In the sequel, Lydia has a daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Furthermore, additional trailer scenes suggest Beetlejuice will try to take Astrid as his wife in the sequel, rather than Lydia (as he did in the original and musical). So, it’s possible that instead of the musical’s storyline of a daughter traveling to the Netherworld to locate her mother, the sequel could see a mother traveling to the Netherworld to locate her daughter instead.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

While there are inversions between the two sets of plot points, there are also a lot of similarities. If you want to investigate for yourself, the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the Beetlejuice movie is available to listen to on Apple Music and elsewhere. Plus, it stars Hazbin Hotel’s Alex Brightman in the eponymous role.

Meanwhile, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be summoned to theaters on Friday, September 6, 2024. Do you already have your tickets?

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Avery Kaplan: Avery lives and writes in Southern California. She is the co-author of Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority with her spouse, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan. Avery is Features Editor at Comics Beat, and you can also find her writing on StarTrek.com, The Gutter Review, Geek Girl Authority, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.