Winona Ryder ‘Never Pictured’ Her Beetlejuice Character as a Mom

Beetlejuice fans can’t wait to find out what happens to the ghost with the most in the movie’s new sequel, but star Winona Ryder initially found it difficult to envision an adult version of her character, Lydia Deetz.

Ryder, 52, told Slash Film in an interview published Sunday, August 25, that she hadn’t considered the idea of Lydia one day having a family. “I think certainly, I never pictured Lydia either having children or in any type of relationship,” the actress explained. “I just always thought she was just probably in her own world as she got older. Just sort of in the attic and happy, but alone.”

The Stranger Things star noted that this idea also made it “hard to imagine” Lydia’s life in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the host of a TV show called Ghost House. Ryder started to come around, however, after meeting Jenna Ortega, who plays Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, in the new film.

“Once we got there and once Jenna and I bonded and once Justin [Theroux] came on board […] I mean, I think everyone who’s as old as I am now, we’ve all been in those things where you’re just like, ‘What was I thinking, in terms of the relationship I have?’” Ryder said. “But I don’t know what young Lydia — I don’t think she would ever have expected to be in front of a camera.”

Theroux, 53, plays Lydia’s boyfriend, Rory, who also happens to be her TV producer. Lydia, Rory and Astrid return to Lydia’s childhood home after the death of her father, Charles Deetz (played by Jeffrey Jones in the 1988 original). While Ortega, 21, and Theroux are new to the franchise, the new movie will also see the return of Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz and Michael Keaton as the titular ghost.

O’Hara, 70, has said that director Tim Burton felt the sequel should be focused on Lydia and her family despite all the supernatural goings-on.

“The way Tim talks about it now, I’ve seen a couple interviews that he’s done, he talks about it being Lydia’s story,” O’Hara explained to Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Monday, August 26. “And a little girl like that in that first Beetlejuice movie, you wonder, where do they go in life? What mistakes do they make? What do they do? Where are the relationships? He was very fascinated by that and family and the connection of the three women.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premieres in theaters Friday, September 6.