Which main characters from the original are missing from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?

It was over 35 years ago that Michael Keaton’s Beetlejuice first terrorized cinemas across the globe. Now all these years later, the Ghost with the Most is back on the big screen. Director Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is nearly here, and even as many grow tired of the seemingly endless stream of legacy sequels that no one asked for, among many in the general audience and, naturally, longtime fans of the 1988 original, anticipation is high for this pre-Halloween spooky theatrical endeavor. Based on promotional material, there seems to be a great amount of new in this long-awaited continuation of the horror comedy classic.

Now decades beyond the events of the first Beetlejuice film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice focuses on a grown-up Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), who now has a daughter of her own, Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Within the walls of the Deetz family home, the two are pulled into a paranormal adventure full of frights, Sandworms, and blasts from the past, chiefly The Juice himself. Unfortunately, for those hoping for an overload of Beetlejuice nostalgia in the form of returning main characters, to some extent, your needs may not be entirely met.

For Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, there are several key characters from its predecessor that will not feature in its narrative. Here’s what we know about their absences.

Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin as Barbara and Adam Maitland

Even though their names aren’t in the title, the Maitlands, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis), are situated squarely at the center of Beetlejuice. The loving couple dies in a car accident, and the two are forced to live eternally in their house as specters, watching as the Deetz family moves In and turns their happily ever after into a nightmare. The two are responsible for the presence of Beetlejuice in the story as they try to scare off the Deetzs and reclaim the house that was all theirs before their untimely passing. All of that is to say the Maitlands are incredibly important to the story of Beetlejuice, so why, as far as we know, are they not in the long-awaited sequel?

As it happens, Geena Davis has spoken on the potential reason for Barbara’s exclusion from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. She told Entertainment Tonight her theory that ghosts don’t age, so it would be hard to bring the Maitlands back as she and Baldwin have aged as humans do since the first film. Since Davis brought her hypothesis forward, Burton himself has given his reasoning for leaving the Maitlands out this time around. “I didn’t want to just tick any boxes. So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else,” he told People, explaining that it was a deliberate creative decision.

Glenn Shadix as Otho Fenlock

She’s brash, abrasive, and set in her ways, not to mention has quite the unique (for lack of a better term) sense of interior design. Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara) is the perfect foil for the Maitlands, but she doesn’t play secondary antagonist alone. Alongside her throughout the film is her judgmental and arrogant friend and one-time paranormal researcher, Otho Fenlock (Glenn Shadix), who not only helps her decorate her new home but aids in her attempt to turn the ghosts living within it into an attraction. This all makes him quite the important presence throughout Beetlejuice, at least up until his fear sends him packing.

By the end of the 1988 favorite, Otho’s dark dreary outfit is transformed into a bright and cheery one by Beetlejuice, leaving him to embarrassedly run and scream all the way home. Sadly, this is the last moviegoers will ever get to see of Glenn Shadix’s Otho. The character actor passed away on September 7, 2010, at age 58, having fallen while at home and sustained fatal blunt trauma to the head. His final live-action role was that of Monsieur Vollard in the 2010 movie Finding Gauguin. Seeing as Shadix and Burton were frequent collaborators, chances are the director did not elect to recast the Otho role for the upcoming movie.

Jeffrey Jones as Charles Deetz

As his wife Delia tears apart their dwelling, setting up her art projects and running around ghost hunting with Otho, Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones) takes a vastly different approach to settling in. He spends time in his study, which he’s very adamant is to remain untouched by his wife and her friend, bird watching, and doing everything to enjoy the serenity of their rural abode. Unfortunately, he does get caught up in Beetlejuice-related shenanigans, but by the time the credits roll, he’s once again able to kick back and relax, comfortable in the knowledge that only kind ghosts populate his residence.

Throughout advertising for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, fans have seen clips of a funeral, with Lydia and Delia wearing black as a coffin is lowered into a burial plot. One can assume that this is Charles being lowered into his final resting place. If this is the case, it’s likely a response to the real-life legal issues of Jeffrey Jones. Not only was he arrested for the possession and solicitation of sexually explicit photographs of a minor, but he was later arrested twice for failing to update his sex offender status. Considering the heinous nature of these crimes, it’s no surprise that Jones was not asked to return as Charles for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Sylvia Sidney as Juno

Once the Maitlands come to terms with the fact that they are indeed dead, they have to come up with a plan to get their house back from the Deetzs. They study up on The Handbook for the Recently Deceased and reach out to those with a bit more experience in the whole afterlife thing for help. On one end, there’s the malicious and scheming Beetlejuice, and on the other is his former boss, the afterlife caseworker Juno (Sylvia Sidney). She does her best to guide the couple along and dissuade them from working with the supposed “Leading Bio-Exorcist,” all while working on other high-stress cases.

With the Deetz family once again having to traverse the paranormal world, Juno seems like the kind of presence they could use on their side. She’s knowledgeable, and she has first-hand experience with Beetlejuice. Based on its marketing, however, it doesn’t appear that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will feature Juno in any capacity. The actor behind her, Sylvia Sidney, passed away on July 1, 1999, at the age of 88, with her cause of death listed as esophageal cancer. Though there’s a slim chance that Juno could be recast, considering the snappiness and attitude Sidney expertly brought to the role, it just wouldn’t be right to bring the character back without her.

With its stacked cast of a few returning favorites and newcomers to the franchise in tow, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice hits the silver screen on September 6.