Beetlejuice 2 fumbles key Delores detail – Or did it nail a clever callback?

Beetlejuice 2, known officially as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, was directed by Tim Burton. The film is a sequel to Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice, and it was released on September 6, 2024. Prior to that, it also had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Here's the official synopsis:

"After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife."

Viewers have observed that the film has botched a detail pertaining to Delores that connects it back to the original. But there is a twist.

Did Beetlejuice 2 botch Delores' detail in the storyline?

Beetlejuice 2 features Delores (played by Monica Bellucci), who was married to Betelgeuse and is also the film's main villain. She comes back to avenge her own demise at the hands of Betelgeuse, who killed her on her nuptials. However, the scene of their wedding has a clash with the 1988 title. In the latter, Betelgeuse takes the wedding ring from a finger that was severed.

He plans to give it to Lydia, and it's hinted that he might have taken it from his spouse. In the sequel, we find out that he was already married, which makes the aforementioned scene confusing. One of the dialogues has him talking to himself about Lydia being his first wife. However, the makers turn the tables in a separate scene.

In Beetlejuice 2, Delores is missing one finger, and she has kept it even after her death. Later, the finger walks back to fit into her hand. Betelgeuse had thrown the finger after removing the ring from it. While it's not shown what happened to the finger, it's possible that it crawls back to the hands of Delores. That body part was also waiting for her to return.

In an interview with Deadline, Burton spoke about the original film's success. He said,

“As much as I love it, I never understood why it was a success. I could never place the film as something other than personal to me. So after all these years being able to work with Michael, Winona and Catherine again made it more personal and special along with Jenna, Monica, Justin and Willem — new people who got into the spirit of it. So it was a very personal project for me.”

The director further said that he did not make the sequel for money but because it was a personal project:

“This is just a very personal film."

More about Beetlejuice 2

A still from Beetlejuice 2 | Image via Warner Bros. YouTube

Beetlejuice 2 was directed by Tim Burton, who also produced it with Tommy Harper, Marc Toberoff, Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner. The screenplay is by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough while the story is by Gough, Miller and Seth Grahame-Smith. The cast members of the film include,