WARNING! This article contains major SPOILERS for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!A major source of tension between Lydia and Astrid Deetz surrounds the fate of Richard, their respective husband and father, who died before Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel brings Winona Ryder’s Lydia to a very different place in life than when she was last seen in Beetlejuice’s ending. When she returns, Lydia is revealed to be a widow raising her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who doubts her mother’s ghost-seeing gift and resents her for sending her to boarding school and refusing to speak about her father, Richard.
Lydia also reveals that her marriage with Richard ended a few years before he died, but it’s unclear whether Astrid’s parents officially divorced before his tragic death. After much discussion about Astrid’s father and Lydia’s inability to see his ghost, Richard finally joins Beetlejuice 2’s cast of characters once Astrid goes to the afterlife. As it turns out, his ghost is working in the immigration office of the Neitherworld, with Richard’s grim appearance and fate giving more context to what really happened to him when he died in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice sequel.
Astrid’s Father Died In A Boating Accident In Brazil Before Beetlejuice 2
Richard Died While Fighting For Climate Justice In South America
Astrid confirms that her father died in a boating accident not long before Charles Deetz’s death kicks off Beetlejuice 2’s story. At the time of his death, Richard was in Brazil fighting for climate justice when his tragedy struck the boat he was on, with the authorities being unable to find his body. The appearance of Richard’s ghost in the afterlife reveals that he’s been swallowed up by the river and essentially become fish food, with a few small fish still even clinging to his dead body as he reunites with Astrid and Lydia in the Neitherworld.
While Lydia and Astrid haven’t been able to see Richard’s ghost since he died, he reveals that he has still often checked in on them.
Jenna Ortega’s character often notes how Richard was a “free spirit” and was always fighting for noble causes around the world, and it seems that his travel and Lydia’s focus on her New York-based Ghost House show culminated in their split. Since his death, it appears Richard has been assigned to working at the afterlife’s immigration office, stamping passports for ghosts to head back to Earth or onto the Great Beyond. However, while Lydia and Astrid haven’t been able to see Richard’s ghost since he died, he reveals that he has still often checked in on them.
Richard is portrayed by Santiago Cabrera in
Beetlejuice 2
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Why Lydia & Astrid Couldn’t See Richard’s Ghost Until Going To The Afterlife
Richard’s Spirit Has Been In The Afterlife, Not On Earth
The rules of the afterlife and which ghosts are able to wander back on Earth becomes more complex in Beetlejuice 2. In the 1988 movie, Adam and Barbara Maitland were forced to spend the first 125 years after their death in their Winter River home, leading them to try to scare the new Deetz family members out of the house. While teenage Lydia was initially the only one who could see the Maitlands because she was more open to seeing the “strange and unusual,” the ghosts couldn’t control whether or not the living could see them.
Therefore, it doesn’t seem to be Richard’s choice for Astrid and Lydia to not be able to see him, despite the two Deetz women sharing the gift of seeing the dead. Still, Richard would need to be “living” on the plane of the real world for Lydia and Astrid to see his ghost there, but Beetlejuice 2 reveals he’s been stuck in the bureaucracy of the afterlife. Since Richard was a “free spirit,” he may not have a location on Earth that his ghost is tethered to like the Maitlands in Winter River, keeping his spirit in the Neitherworld.
