New Winona Ryder Interview Teases Beetlejuice 2 Details: “Lydia Is A Pill-Popping Widow”

It’s been more than three decades, but the Ghost With the Most is (almost) back, baby! In teasers for the long-awaited Warner Bros. Beetlejuice sequel, aptly titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton can be seen once again donning his iconic undead character’s signature stripes. And as if that wasn’t enough to get everyone excited over the resuscitation of this cult classic, Winona Ryder — who is reprising her role as the “strange and unusual” Lydia Deetz — just dropped some juicy intel about her character in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

Speaking with Bazaar writer Thessaly La Force, Ryder reveals that part of what drew her back to Lydia was the fact that they are now both middle-aged women who made some pretty relatable mistakes in their youth. “I felt bad for her,” she admits. In this portion of the interview, interesting new details about Ryder’s character in the sequel surface.

So, what did Ryder reveal? And what else can fans expect from the sequel? As the undead one himself might say, let’s party. Here’s everything we know about what’s to come, including the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailer and even more new photos.

When does Beetlejuice Beetlejuice come out?

The sequel is set to land in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024. So, you’ll be waiting about as long as Barbara and Adam did to see Juno in the afterlife. (At least it’s not an eternity!)

What is the sequel about?

Beetlejuice fans have been waiting a long time for director Tim Burton to say "It's showtime!" on a sequel to the 1988 classic — long enough for new generations to get in on the fun. It's one of the rare "old" movies that tweens and teens seem to love as much as adults. With more and more nostalgic parents introducing the Keaton-fronted horror comedy to their kids each year, now feels like the perfect time for the long-gestating Beetlejuice 2 sequel to finally happen.

Fortunately, it feels like Burton will return to the movie’s roots with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Lydia (Ryder) is all grown up and has a daughter of her own, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Through Ryder’s July interview with Bazaar, we learn that Lydia is now a “pill-popping widow” who “hosts a television show called Ghost House.”

Meaning, yes, she can still see the dead! She’s in an unhappy relationship with her manager, Rory, played by Beetlejuice newcomer Justin Theroux, and Astrid hates her “because the one person Lydia can’t contact from the afterlife is Astrid’s father, who tragically died in a fishing accident.”

The movie’s official logline tells us that three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River after an unexpected family tragedy, the death of the Deetz family patriarch, Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Duncan Jones).

The logline explains, “Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic, and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”

On May 23, new photos dropped. They feature several callbacks to the original and fresh peeks at the new cast, including Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe.

Is there a trailer yet?

Ask and ye shall receive, because the first teaser trailer dropped on March 21. We didn’t even need Otho to summon it.

Better yet? There’s a new, just-released trailer that is less like the original teaser and shares more details and a deeper look at what’s to come in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Who else is in the cast?

We know that Keaton, Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara (aka Delia Deetz) are all returning, which makes sense, given their current career renaissances. Not only did Keaton recently win an Emmy for the Hulu limited series Dopesick, but he also reprised his role as Batman in the sadly shelved Batgirl movie. Ryder has become synonymous with the globally popular (and also creepy) Stranger Things. And who hasn’t loved every single moment and meme from O’Hara’s turn as the wonderfully wacky Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek?

There’s no word on who else from the original cast could also return, including Alec Baldwin, and Geena Davis. Baldwin’s legal woes may keep him from making a cameo. He’s still caught up in an upsetting court case involving an accidental shooting on the set of the film Rust.

Now confirmed by the new trailer, the funereal attire of the main characters in the sequel’s first-look photos explains the absence of patriarch Charles Deetz. Given actor Jeffrey Jones has seen quite a bit of legal trouble in the years since the original movie premiered, it was unlikely he’d reprise his role — and now it’s confirmed he’s been written off entirely. But, really, as long as fans get Ryder and Keaton, they’ll be happy. And they’re clearly returning.

What's been said about a Beetlejuice sequel?

In a 2016 interview with Variety, Keaton pointed out how the stars would really need to align for a sequel. "The only way to do it is to do it right,” he said. “So much of it was improvised, and so much was beautifully handmade by the artist that is Tim Burton. If you can't get close to that, you leave it alone."

For her part, Ryder, who played the disaffected teen Lydia in the original, was more optimistic when she was asked about a potential sequel on Late Night with Seth Myers in 2015. "I think I can confirm it because Tim Burton did this interview — like, it was very hush-hush, top secret … and then he was doing some press for Big Eyes and he did an on-camera interview, and he said, 'Oh yeah we're doing it and Winona's going to be in it,' and I was like [shocked face]," she revealed.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter writer Seth Grahame-Smith was once attached to write Beetlejuice 2, and in a 2021 interview with Collider, he shared why his version of the story didn't make it to the big screen.

"It's funny, when I had met with Tim about it last, and we're talking about five years ago at this point, the reason that it's so hard to get going is because so many people love it and because there are 10 million ways to get that sequel wrong and four ways to get it right," he told the publication. "It's such a very fine needle to thread that I certainly, like, didn't get it there, on the script side. I didn't thread the needle. There are things that were cool and some interesting ideas. I've certainly emotionally moved on from it and just said, 'If it happens someday, it happens.'"

Thankfully for fans, following years of speculation as murky as the rules of the Netherworld Waiting Room, Beetlejuice 2 *is* finally happening and these new stills from the film are proof.