Beetlejuice 2 cleverly explains why Juno the case worker is missing from Tim Burton’s sequel

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Beetlejuice 2 (2024)!Although her departure was expected, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Includes a subtle in-universe reason why Juno is missing from the sequel. Very few figures from the original 1988 Beetlejuice Movie actually return in Beetlejuice 2s cast, including Betelgeuse herself (Michael Keaton), Lidia Deetz (Winona Ryder), Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara), and Little Jane Butterfield (played by Amy Nuttall in the sequel). Therefore, the vast Most of the original Beetlejuice These characters do not appear in the 2024 movieSuch as the Deetzes’ iconic friend Otho and the Maitlands’ fan-favorite caseworker Juno.

The absences of both Otho and Juno in Beetlejuice 2 Make sense in the context of real-world developments. Juno’s actress Sylvia Sidney died in 1999, with Otto’s actor Glenn Shadix died in 2010. However, with Juno being a ghost forced to spend eternity as a civil servant, her character realistically could have played a role in the sequel’s plot. Considering Charles Deetz’s ghost walks around headless in the afterlife, Beetlejuice 2 Already found ways to work around the absence of original actors. Regardless, although Otto is not even mentioned, Beetlejuice 2 Includes a clever reference to Juno’s fate.

Beetlejuice 2’s “Case Workers Strike” article explains why Juno is missing

Betelgeuse reads a newspaper article about case workers on strike in Beetlejuice 2

In a subtle background detail, Beetlejuice 2 Confirmed that case workers are on strike During the events of the 2024 sequel. The responsibility of case workers took on an important role in the original Beetlejuice Movie, as the recently deceased couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) traveled to the netherworld to seek advice on ridding their house of the new Deetz family members. The ghosts are assigned to Juno as their case worker, who advises against recruiting Betelgeuse after revealing he was once her naughty assistant.

While Michael Keaton’s Betelgeuse reads a newspaper in Beetlejuice 2One article has a headline that says that the police workers of the Life-Life are all on strike. This not only explains why Juno is gone Beetlejuice 2s history, but also Justifies why the new ghosts Delia and Charles Dets do not consult with any other case workers on their deaths. With Juno on strike, it also stands to reason that her missing colleagues from the original movie, such as the host Miss Argentina, could be joining her.

The case worker’s strike in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Also hints at why certain ghosts who did not die by suicide work as civil servants. In the 1988 horror comedy, it was established that those who die by suicide become victims in the aftermath, with Beetlejuice Then the netherworld’s employees show up with self-inflicted fatal wounds. However, Betelgeuse and Astrid’s dead father Richard both work in the afterlife’s bureaucracy despite one being poisoned and the other dying in a boating accident. With a shortage of caseworkers due to the strike, Richard and Betelgeuse could be mistakenly assigned as replacements..

Beetlejuice 2 gives homepage to Juno’s original role with Wolf Jackson and the Police Force

Juno herself may not be in the sequel, however Beetlejuice 2 Still paying tribute to her role in the original movie. Wolf Jackson and the police force arguably serve as Beetlejuice 2s replacements for Juno and the football players. Like Juno, Wolf provides a sense of authority in the bureaucracy of the afterlifeHelping keep the death’s chaos in check. Furthermore, while Juno was followed by a dead football team that briefly came to the real world in BeetlejuiceIn late 1988, Wolf is joined by a team of dead policemen who come to the real world to stop Betelgeuse and Lydia’s wedding.

With the case workers on strike, Beetlejuice Expands the world-building of the afterlife by showing a different department in the netherworld bureaucracy. The idea that there was a police force in Beetlejuice Is not clear, so Beetlejuice 2 introduces A lot of new gags by substituting the case workers’ office for the police department. If Beetlejuice 3 As always happens with Tim Burton, the franchise could expand further by diving into yet another live bureau, such as with politicians, newspaper journalists or lawyers.

Why Beetlejuice 2 explains away the absences of dead original characters, but not the living ones

The absences of the dead characters make less sense after the 1988 movie

There are nearly a dozen missing original characters in Beetlejuice 2However The only ones whose absences were declared were already dead in the 1988 classic. Juno went missing because of the strike, while Adam and Barbara found a loophole and “moved on” from haunting the Winter River House. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Otto, the guests of the Deetzes and Jane Butterfield are not addressed. Otto is not referred to Beetlejuice 2Maxie Dean is implied to attend Charles’s funeral but is never seen, and Jane Butterfield’s fate is left ambiguous as little Jane Butterfield takes over Winter River’s real estate game.

It seems that Tim Burton felt more Obliged to address the absences of the original dead characters due to the in-universe logic that they should realistically still be around. The dead characters are supposedly stuck exactly where they were in the original movie, so the Maitlands would logically still be in the Winter River attic while Juno would still be in the case worker’s office in Beetlejuice 2s timeline. Therefore, it makes more sense to include an in-universe nod to why the Maitlands left and the case workers like Juno aren’t conferring with new ghosts.

Currently, the living are not bound to the geographic constraints vi BeetlejuiceS deceased letters. The Away from BeetlejuiceThese vivid figures could be explained by any number of reasons; Perhaps the characters died, stopped being friends or colleagues with family debts, or simply could not come to Charles’ funeral. It would take much more precious time from the movie before Beetlejuice 2It ends to explain the fate of Otto, Jane and the dinner guests. On the other hand, a simple newspaper article and a short line from Lydia cares for the execution of the dead characters in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.