Why Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cut Maitland's cameo from the early draft

Warning: This article contains a slight spoiler from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Every long-term Beetlejuice A fan who has followed the actors' statements over the years can tell you that two of the original stars, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, would not be returning for the sequel. Davis commented several times that no one had contacted her about reprising the role of Barbara Maitland, and director Tim Burton even explained why he decided not to bring back those particular characters. The screenwriters of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice were prepared for a different scenario.

Burton's Wednesday Author Alfred Gough, who wrote the script for the sequel together with another Netflix series graduate, Miles Millar, tells Weekly entertainment how an early draft of the script called for a cameo appearance by the Maitlands at the end, but this was ultimately scrapped.

“It's funny with the Maitlands because we asked Tim and then went back and forth,” Gough recalls. “There was a version where they just showed up at the end, but the problem is they're ghosts, so they had to kind of look like they were 35, which was never going to happen. I think Tim felt, and Miles and I agreed, that their story had been told. So how do we go from there?”

The first Beetlejuice from 1988, based on a screenplay by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, Baldwin, now 66, and Davis, now 68, starred as Adam and Barbara Maitland, a married couple who move into their country home in Winter River, Connecticut. When they are killed in a car accident, they haunt the house as ghosts. Unable to leave, they decide to call on the demonic “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to drive out the new residents, the Deetzes, Charles (Jeffrey Jones), Delia (Catherine O'Hara) and Lydia (Winona Ryder).

For the sequel, which hits theaters this weekend, 36 years after the original's release, Burton wanted to focus on the characters Lydia, Delia and Betelgeuse, according to Gough. “The first film is actually about the Maitlands,” Gough explains. “It was actually Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis's film for a good while. [portion]. They're the protagonists who turned Beetlejuice against the Deetz family. So he said he really wanted to focus on them.”

“He wasn't interested in doing fan service or being subservient,” Gough adds. “I think he was very interested in how do we tell the next installment of the story?”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice begins with Lydia as a single mother whose husband Richard (Santiago Carbrera) died years ago. After using her ability to see ghosts to become the host of a paranormal reality show called Haunted HouseShe returns to Winter River with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and Delia to mourn the loss of her father. Astrid is tricked by a local ghost, Jeremy (Arthur Conti), into opening a portal to the afterlife and trading her life for his, forcing Lydia to summon Betelgeuse again to save her family.

The story explains the Maitlands' absence in a line of dialogue that says that Adam and Barbara found a “loophole” and were finally able to leave the house. “I think we even put in a joke where [Astrid] says, 'How convenient!'” says Gough. “We tried to think of ways, could we give the Maitlands a nod? I think Tim finally said, 'Let's not do that. We have a reason why they're not there anymore. So let's just not do it.'”

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Speaking to EW at CinemaCon in April this year, Davis said she hadn't spoken to Burton about the sequel yet, but added, “I can't wait to see it.”

“This film means a lot to me,” she said at the time. “I'll tell you something funny: Sometimes when someone recognizes me, they say, 'I love your film.” I say, “What movie is it?” [It’s] always Beetlejuice.”