With a lot of the same talent both in front of and behind the camera,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewas always bound to be similar toWednesday— but it has a few specific references to the hit Netflix show. Released 36 years after the original film,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewas Tim Burton’s follow-up project toWednesdayseason 1, which saw his long-awaited return to the macabre (and led to his biggest success in years). Burton tappedWednesdayshowrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to write the sequel’s script and castWednesday Addams herself, Jenna Ortega, to play Lydia Deetz’s rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid.
Bringing in Ortega and the writers behindWednesdaywas a smart move, because it ensured thatBeetlejuice 2not only brought in nostalgic fans of the first film, but also brought inWednesday’s massive fan base. Part ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice’s blockbuster box office successcan be attributed to theWednesdaywalk-ups, because it’s essentially a big-screen offshoot ofWednesdayin all but name.Beetlejuice 2doesn’t just share a spooky vibe and a twisted sense of humor withWednesday; it has a few specific similarities with the Netflix series, like a creepy boarding school and an eccentric dance scene.
6Jenna Ortega Plays A Dark, Moody High Schooler
Astrid Deetz Is Essentially Wednesday 2.0
Ortega’s casting in the lead role is one of the most obvious parallels betweenWednesdayandBeetlejuice Beetlejuice. Not only does Ortega lead the cast of both projects with plenty of Gen Z star power; the two characters have a lot in common. They’re both dark, moody, misanthropic high school students who have very little interest in making friends or engaging with their studies. They both have morbid hobbies and interests: Wednesday is obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle, while Astrid enjoys rereading the bleak literature of Fyodor Dostoevsky over and over again, reliving his protagonist’s suffering.
Ortega has a very similar delivery style for both of these characters’ lines, with a dry, deadpan approach to the humor. It makes the two performances very similar — practically indistinguishable apart from the characters’ different names — but since each character’s lines were written by the same writers, they open themselves up to the same kind of delivery. In many ways, Astrid is characterized as Wednesday 2.0. She was conceived as a new version of her mother Lydia for a new generation of moviegoers, but in execution, that creation ended up morphing into a carbon copy of Wednesday.
5The Story Kicks Off At A Creepy Boarding School
Astrid’s Boarding School Has A Lot In Common With Nevermore Academy
Not only do Wednesday and Astrid have a similar dismissive attitude towards their high school studies; they both attend similar high schools, too. They both attend creepy boarding schools located inside giant, creaky, old mansions. Wednesday attends Nevermore Academy, a school that is specifically designated for students with paranormal abilities, where her roommate is a werewolf, her principal is a shapeshifter, and her classmates include a siren, a gorgon, and a vampire. Astrid’s school is more of a regular prep school; she’s the only student with a supernatural power, and she doesn’t even know she has it until she leaves.
In bothWednesdayandBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, the boarding school serves as the catalyst for the story. InWednesday, the boarding school is where the mysterious Hyde creature starts picking off its prey one by one; inBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, the boarding school is where Astrid’s mother and grandmother pick her up to take her to her grandfather’s funeral, effectively completing the cast and getting the sequel’s plot in full swing. But whereWednesdayremains at the boarding school,Beetlejuice 2quickly leaves that setting behind to take the franchise back to the spooky small town of Winter River.
4Jenna Ortega Doesn’t Get Along With Her Classmates
Both Wednesday & Astrid Are Loners Who Despise The Popular Kids
In bothWednesdayandBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ortega’s characters don’t get along with their classmates. Wednesday and Astrid are both loners who have no interest in making friends and despise the popular kids. This isn’t the case across Ortega’s entire filmography. InStuck in the Middle, her character Harley Diaz has a best friend named Ellie. InMiller’s Girl, her character Cairo Sweet has a best friend named Winnie who she confides in about her affair. In theScreammovies, her character Tara Carpenter has an active social life with a large circle of close friends who care deeply about her.
But neither Wednesday nor Astrid are as socially active as Ortega’s other characters. They’re both shown to be lone wolves who have ambivalence or even animosity towards their fellow students. The first episode ofWednesdaykicks off with the title character unleashing a swarm of hungry piranhas into the school swimming pool in an attempt to kill the bullies who locked her brother Pugsley in a locker. When Astrid is first introduced inBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, she’s pranked by a group of popular girls, who she proceeds to berate with one ofBeetlejuice 2’s best quotes.
3Delores' Hand Crawls Independently Like Wednesday’s Thing
This Is A Subtle Reference To Wednesday, But It’s Unmistakable
Although it’s arguably an unnecessary subplot that doesn’t really go anywhere or add much to the overall narrative, Delores’ quest for revenge was a great concept inBeetlejuice Beetlejuice. It was a fun conceit for Betelgeuse to have an ex-wife who’s even more evil and vindictive than him, out for vengeance. She was a quintessential femme fatale and Monica Bellucci was a perfect casting choice to bring that seductively sinister character to life. But aside from a hilarious flashback sequence in the style of an old black-and-white Italian horror movie, she didn’t bring much to the movie.
However, she did bring one ofBeetlejuice 2’s subtlest references toWednesday. Delores is first introduced in the afterlife, as all of her severed body parts are reanimated. Her reanimated body parts drag themselves across the floor and reattach themselves, eventually putting her back together, all set to one of Burton’s best soundtrack needle-drops: “Tragedy” by the Bee Gees. As Delores’ hand crawls on its own to rejoin with the arm it was severed from, it looks suspiciously similar to Thing fromWednesday.Thing is Wednesday’s pet hand, who’s surprisingly helpful in her investigation into the Hyde.
2Jenna Ortega’s Love Interest Turns Out To Be A Villain
BothWednesdayandBeetlejuice Beetlejuicegive Ortega’s character a love interest, and in both cases, that love interest turns out to be a villain. Midway through the first season ofWednesday, the title character developed a romance withthe sheriff’s son, Tyler Galpin. Initially, Tyler seemed to be a nice guy with real affection for Wednesday. However, at the season’s climax, Tyler was revealed to be the true identity of the Hyde monster that had been slaughtering people across town. It was a shocking twist inWednesday, but it wasn’t so shocking the second time around.
InBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, Gough and Millar copied their own plot twist. Early on in the movie, Astrid meets a local boy named Jeremy Frazier, who she quickly falls for based on their shared love of Dostoevsky. Much like Tyler, Jeremy initially seems to be a genuinely nice guy with genuine feelings for Astrid. But, much like Tyler, he later turns out to be a serial killer plotting to betray her. As it turns out, Jeremy is a murderer who killed his own parents, then died falling out of his treehouse, and now, he’s a ghost.
Jeremy has an evil plan to steal Astrid’s life; he tricks her into thinking he’s just an innocent dead person and she can resurrect him by signing a contract in the afterlife. However, he’s really planning to swap her life for his. When she signs the contract, she’ll be doomed to an eternity in the afterlife and he’ll be able to walk free on Earth with her stolen lifeforce. This at least madeBeetlejuice 2’s love interest/villain twist a bit more complex thanWednesday’s love interest/villain twist, with a couple more facets to it.
1Jenna Ortega Has An Eccentric Dance Scene
Beetlejuice 2’s Most Obvious Wednesday Reference Is The Dance Scene
The most iconic moment inWednesdayis the dance scene. In season 1, episode 4, “Woe What a Night,” Wednesday attends a school dance with Tyler and tears up the dancefloor in one of the most memorable dance scenes ever committed to film. Ortega’s hilariously unconventional dance choreography was inspired by “The Aloof” dance from the 1969 Bob Fosse musicalSweet Charity. This dance quickly became a TikTok trend and the defining image of the hit Netflix series. Decades from now, Ortega will still be remembered fortheWednesdaydance sequencethat briefly took the world by storm.
The climactic sequence ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuicecontains a not-so-subtle allusion toWednesday’s dance scene. Lydia’s wedding to Rory is hijacked by Betelgeuse as he wants her to keep up her end of the deal she made in exchange for saving Astrid. When Lydia, Rory, Astrid, and Delia all try to protest the ceremony, Betelgeuse uses one of his more unusual powers to stop them. Betelgeuse breaks into a rousing rendition of the classic Richard Harris pop hit “MacArthur Park,” and forces everyone else in the church to join in.
Duringthis “MacArthur Park” musical number, Betelgeuse uses his powers to make Astrid and Delia dance against their will. Based on their confused facial expressions, they have no control over their moves — but Astrid’s moves look very similar to Wednesday’s. It’s not a move-for-move copy of the Fosse-style dance fromWednesday, but it’s close enough for the reference point to be clear.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas many references toWednesday, but the dance scene is the most obvious parallel between the two projects.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Cast
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the sequel to the original Tim Burton classic that starred Michael Keaton and Wynona Rider in a horror-comedy that involved ghosts trying to scare off new homebuyers from taking their house. The sequel brings back Michael Keaton as the hilarious and sleazy ghost with selfish intentions, now joined by Jenna Ortega in a new role.
