Beetlejuice Wiki
Beetlejuice Wiki
Beetlejuice Wiki
566
pages
in: Characters (BJ1), Characters (BJ2), Characters (BJ:M),
and 5 more
English

Lydia Deetz

Sign in to edit


Lydia Deetz is the daughter of Charles Deetz and the stepdaughter of Delia Deetz. She’s mostly referred to as a "goth" girl. Beetlejuice plans on marrying her, so he can return to the world of the living. She’s the main protagonist of the Beetlejuice movies and the deuteragonist of the animated series. It is revealed in the second film that Lydia's biological mother isn't dead, which is what people initially theorized happened to her mother for Delia to end up her stepmother. In fact, in the musical, the plot is primarily a modified version of the original film's story where Lydia's mother passes away.

Movie canon[]

History (BJ1)[]

Lydia Deetz a 15-year-old gothic girl who is from New York City and moved with her family to Winter River, Connecticut after her father decided to take a break from his real estate business and Delia needs a new inspiration for her art gallery. She takes a liking to the house and disapproves of Delia changing it into a gothic piece of art. She defines herself as strange and unusual, and quickly noticed the Maitlands in the attic window on moving day. She finds the Handbook For the Recently Deceased in the attic and is able to understand it. When the Maitlands failed to scare Delia and then were leaving her room, Lydia photographed them in the hall, thinking they were her parents playing a kinky game. The photos revealed nothing but the sheets and she realizes they were ghosts, and formally introduced themselves. They tell her of them being trapped in the house and we’re trying to scare the family out of the house. Lydia sympathizes with them and agrees to try to convince her parents the ghosts are real during dinner, helped by the Maitlands possessing the parents and guests into singing and dancing. However, they are excited and want to exploit the ghosts to the public. Beetlejuice manifests into a snake to terrorize the family and scares Lydia before the Maitlands summon him back into the town model.

Lydia accuses the Maitlands of deceiving her and becomes more depressed than before. She writes a suicide letter and tries to leave it for the Maitlands when she finds Beetlejuice in the town model. They start talking and he asks her to help him get out, to which she replies she wants him, perplexing him. He offers to help her if she says his name 3 times and plays charades with her to help her learn his name. However the Maitlands stop her and comfort her that being dead doesn’t make things better.

When Otho steals the handbook to try and summon the ghosts, Lydia is not worried at first until they appear and begin decaying, as he had unintentionally performed an exorcism. Lydia goes to the model to ask for Beetlejuice to save them. He agrees if she agrees to marry him because, by marrying a living person, he can escape from the Netherworld for good. She agrees and summons him. He then dons himself and Lydia into wedding attire and tries force the wedding ceremony to go through despite her protests. The Maitlands stop the marriage when a Sandword devours Beetlejuice.

In the aftermath, Lydia is adjusting well and is living happily with her parents and the Maitlands, who become secondary parental figures to her.

History (BJ2)[]

In the 36 years following the first film, Lydia found a loophole that allowed the Maitlands to leave their house and move on to the Great Beyond. She went on to marry a man named Richard and had a daughter named Astrid. However, the marriage fell apart and she became a widow after he died in a boating accident. This caused Astrid to resent Lydia and they became estranged. At a survivor’s resort, she met a man named Rory and they began dating.

She started a TV Show "Ghost House”, that made her famous.[1] However, she began seeing visions of Beetlejuice and assumed they were hallucinations due to her past trauma. She was unaware that he was actually appearing to her due to their psychic connection. When she learns her father has died in an accident, she reunites with Delia and Astrid to return to Winter River for the funeral. During Charles’ wake, Rory proposes to a stunned Lydia who declines but is manipulated by Rory into accepting.[2] This further isolates her from Astrid who despises Rory. Lydia and Astrid attempt to bond over memories of Richard until Lydia finds a flyer of Beetlejuice and orders Astrid to never say his name. She starts to worry he is trying to force his way back into her life and grows irritated at Rory’s obsession with making their wedding a celebrity topic. Beetlejuice again tries to get her attention and she tells him to leave her alone, and reveals to Rory when the former tries to force her to marry him. Rory dismisses it as a figment of her imagination and summons Beetlejuice, causing them to end up in a therapist room in the model with Beetlejuice playing the therapist. He pulls pranks on them including having Lydia give ‘birth’ to a baby Beetlejuice. She criticizes him for stalking her and he says he wants to remarry her because she is the love of his life before she summons herself and Rory out of the model. She then sees Beetlejuice playing a guitar and singing a love to her as a declaration of his love for her, confusing her.

She is ready to leave as soon as possible but Astrid made plans to visit a boy, Jeremy, on Halloween. Lydia takes her to his house and returns home, as Delia leaves to mourn at Charles’ grave. During a talk with the real estate agent, Lydia learns Jeremy is a ghost who murdered his parents and goes to get Astrid but arrives too late as Astrid is tricked into entering the Netherworld. She reluctantly summons Beetlejuice and asks him to help her save her daughter. He agrees if she agrees to finally marry him. She agrees and he has her sign a marriage contract to ensure she can’t back out of the deal. He then breaks them into the Netherworld and they head to the door leading to the Soul Train Station but they split up when Beetlejuice senses Delores is nearby. Lydia finds Astrid in time but they end up on one of Saturn’s moons and are attacked by a Sandworm. They are saved by Richard and the three reconcile just as Jeremy is sent to Hell by Beetlejuice, saving Astrid. Lydia and Astrid return to the living world, and the latter apologizes for calling her mother a fraud.

They arrive at the church where Rory is waiting for them but Beetlejuice and Delia are also waiting. Beetlejuice reveals Lydia agreed to the marriage in exchange for his help, and injects Rory with truth serum to reveal he never loved Lydia, thinks she is a fraud, and is only after her money. Aided by Beetlejuice, Lydia angrily punches Rory. She and Beetlejuice are then donned in their original wedding attire and what follows is a musical wedding ceremony, with everyone being possessed into singing and dancing. Beetlejuice surprises her with a giant wedding cake, sings to her, levitates with her and kisses her hand before Wolf arrives to arrest Beetlejuice who freezes Wolf. Delores also arrives but she and Rory are swallowed by a Sandworm, which doesn’t bother Lydia. Lydia, Delia and Astrid attempt to leave when Beetlejuice reminds her of their agreement. Astrid says the deal is null and void because he illegally brought Lydia into the afterlife. Lydia says she would’ve given him a chance if he wasn’t 600 years older, and banishes him back to the afterlife. Delia bids farewell to Lydia and Astrid, who embrace once alone.

Lydia ends her TV show so she can spend more time with Astrid and they traveled the world together. However, she has a nightmare of Astrid giving birth to the baby Beetlejuice, and when she woke up, he was in bed with her, but she woke up again alone this time but hearing his laughter, confused on whether or not he was there.

Physical Description (BJ1)[]

In the movie, Lydia has medium-length black hair with pointed bangs and always has her hair in a half-ponytail. She is perpetually dressed in black. During the wedding scene, she’s seen wearing a poofy red, rose-themed dress and looks disgusted at the fact that she’s marrying Betelgeuse.

Personality (BJ1)[]

Lydia is an irritable, but friendly girl who is sensitive beyond her Goth dress and feels isolated in the world. Her father and stepmother do not take anything she says seriously and often ignore her for their own selfish pursuits. Lydia loves writing poetry, taking photographs, and loves anything pertaining to the supernatural and paranormal. Despite her young age, Lydia appears to be the most sensible member of the Deetz household. Though in her dark personality she has a great dark sense of humor to her. She also has a certain flair for the dramatic, particularly when talking about herself. By the end of the film, she is more happy and well-adjusted because Adam Maitland and Barbara Maitland become active parental figures alongside Charles Deetz and Delia Deetz, who take a stronger role in her upbringing after having seen her nearly forced into marriage with Betelgeuse.

Personality (BJ2)[]

Lydia is more reserved and fragile, due to PTSD of her losing her husband and seeing visions of Beetlejuice. This causes to her become gullible to Rory, who manipulates her and tries to control her. She loves her daughter but struggles to bond with Astrid who held a grudge against her. While she still has anxiety over Beetlejuice’s attempts to catch her attention, she trusts him to a degree that she turned to him for help.

Trivia (BJ1)[]

  • In an early script, Lydia was originally to be a minor character and a typical teenage angsty goth. She would've also had a 9-year-old sister named Cathy who would be the one to befriend the Maitlands. Most of Cathy's plot points and personality traits in the script were merged with Lydia.
  • Only in the first script from the movie Lydia had a sister. The original script before it was changed was much darker. You can find the original movie script online.
  • In early versions of the script it was set that Lydia would die in a fire and join the Maitlands in the afterlife. This was decided against after the realization that too many teens would be interpret this as "death being only way out of sadness" and might seem like a push for teens to commit suicide to find happiness instead of dealing with their problems.
  • In early versions of the script it was set that Betelgeuse did not seek to marry Lydia in order to gain life among the living, but to rape her.
  • A Monster High doll has been made of her in 2021.

Gallery (BJ1)[]

Gallery (BJ2)[]

Beetlejuice (musical)[]

History (BJ:M)[]

Beetlejuice-sophia-caruso-2000-1e0b07e756514e7099f07c62ee5aee36

Lydia Deetz

Lydia Deetz along with her Father and assistant/life coach Delia moved to Winter River, Connecticut. This was after just losing her real mother Emily Deetz.

Physical Description (BJ:M)[]

After the death of her mother, Emily Deetz, Lydia is seen with long wavy blond hair that is quite clearly bleached and bangs. Shortly afterward, she’s seen with short curly dark brown hair and high straight bangs. Her most memorable and notable outfit consists of a black long-sleeved lacy dress with safety pins attached around the collar of the dress. Although during the wedding the classic red dress is brought back. During the Act 1 finale, when Day-o is sung, she can be seen wearing a yellow dress.

Gallery (BJ:M)[]

Beetlejuice (animated series)[]

History (BJ:AS)[]

Lydia Deetz is Beetlejuice's best friend. She lives in the fictional New England town of Peaceful Pines with her mother Delia and her dad Charles. She owns a black cat named Percy. Lydia goes to Miss Shannon's School for Girls. Along with her schoolmates, she's friends with two girls named Bertha and Prudence (their last names were never given in the series). Lydia's rival is Claire Brewster, a beautiful, rich, pompous blonde who's always mean to her. Lydia's unlike other humans and, despite her beauty, she likes things scary and spooky, or "strange and unusual" in her own words. Possibly for this reason, she's the only human (at least in the show) who knows about Beetlejuice and the Neitherworld. She often goes there and back by memorizing a poem and saying his name 3 times, and she can also call him to her world and send him back in the same way. She also says a longer version of the incantation if she wants to enter the Neitherworld to visit BJ or when there's an emergency, sometimes. Because she's calmed and more logical of the duo, Lydia serves as the voice of reason to Beetlejuice, who adores her, and he would do anything to make her happy. Although the series includes a number of small callbacks to the film, the exact backstory of how she and Beetlejuice met, is never clearly revealed. The series begins, in "Critter Sitters," as the pair are about to celebrate their year anniversary, as her mom offers Lydia to babysit Arnlow until then.

After she recites the poem, her window opens by itself with thunderclap in the sky, her room turns into a room of a medieval castle and her tablecloth becomes her poncho and turns red.

Physical Description (BJ:AS)[]

Lydia has pale white skin with black eyes with black irises. She sports midnight black hair with bangs covering her forehead and worn in a bun held by a purple ribbon.

Her regular outfit at home is a long dark purple top, a pair of black leggings, a light purple and pink sash tied around her waist and black slipper-shoes. Her Neitherworld attire consists of a large spiderweb pattern red poncho, over a full-body black Unitard (the ends of the sleeves are like finger-less gloves, and the bottom of the legs double as footwear). Though this is her outfit of choice in the Neitherworld, she wore various different outfits throughout the series.

At school, Lydia wears her hair down and her school uniform consists of a blue jacket worn over a white button-up top and a black necktie and a spider-shaped badge with a short dark purple skirt, grey socks and black shoes.

Trivia (BJ:AS)[]

  • Her exact age isn't given, although in The Big Face Off she makes a reference to being in the seventh grade. Assuming time passes in the show's universe as it does in real life, she would therefore be in her mid-teens by the time of the series finale. The short plot for the animation series on IMDb states that she is 12 years old at the start of the show.
  • Even though she is the co-star of the animated series, there are five episodes in which Lydia doesn't appear.
  • Lydia refers to Delia Deetz as "mom" in the animated series while in the live action movies, she only refers to her by name. Whether or not she remains her stepmother in the cartoon is never made clear.
  • In the episode "Vidiots," she identifies herself as "Lydia 'Joystick' Deetz." This has led to a fan theory that her middle name is Joyce, which's plausible but unconfirmed.
  • In "Robbin Juice of Sherweird Forest", it's revealed that she's violently allergic to roses.
  • According to Beetlejuice, she's the only person he knows that is "nice" in ways he can actually stomach. She's kind to all animals, even insects and worms; in "Out of My Mind," he observes that no one is nicer to worms (or to him) than she is. He even has a shrine to her inside his mind, indicative of just how much he reveres her.
  • He also describes her, in the episode "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," as "the greatest person I know."
  • In "Oh Brother," he explicitly states that he would do anything for her.
  • Claire makes life miserable for Lydia on a regular basis, although the misery is certainly tempered by Beetlejuice's influence. He dislikes Claire's general attitude, but despises her for how she treats Lydia, and frequently offers to enact bizarre revenge pranks on her. Lydia is tempted, but insists on keeping her revenge artistic rather than personal; she enjoys letting Claire worry about how she might retaliate. This doesn't always keep Beetlejuice from acting on his own, however.
  • Like in the live-action movie, her father calls her "Pumpkin," and as promised in the film by him, Lydia has a darkroom in the basement.
  • She also says Beetlejuice's name when she's in a big hurry.
  • She says the main reasons BJ is her best friend is because he makes her laugh, he knows 101 ways to eat beetles, and (in his own words) he's "the ghost with the most."
  • Lydia and Beetlejuice are often "shipped" by many fans of the cartoon; according to several of the writers, this was invoked deliberately in the show. Several characters they encounter are uncertain as to the exact nature of their relationship, but it's clear to everyone who meets them that Lydia is the one individual who matters the most to Beetlejuice.
  • In the episode "In the Schticks" (season 4, episode 39) Beetlejuice's uncle refers to Lydia as his "girlfriend."
  • In "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," Beetlejuice experiences an alternate reality in which he never existed. Without his influence, Lydia is a lonely, depressed, and painfully shy girl who longs for just one friend. Despite it being against the rules, Beetlejuice presents himself to this version of Lydia and manages to make her laugh, promising to show her even greater things in the future. However, he's then informed by his 'guide' that Lydia can't be part of the new un-reality he's wished for himself; realizing that he would leave her completely miserable without him, he immediately cancels the wish and returns to his regular afterlife.
  • Lydia only scares Beetlejuice once, in "Scare and Scare Alike," by saying his mother called and was on her way to visit for a whole month.
  • Lydia may have inspired a lot of other goth cartoon girls: Sam Manson (Danny Phantom), Gwen (Total Drama series), Triana (Venture Bros.), Carrie (The Amazing World of Gumball), Marceline (Adventure Time), etc.
  • In "Bewitched, Bothered and Beetlejuiced", she and Beetlejuice masquerade as witches to save her pet cat Percy from the witches.
  • Her hobbies include sewing, writing in her notebook, photography, and traveling to the Neitherworld.
  • She has a keen knowledge in mechanics, when she repaired Doomie.
  • She is the winner of the Neitherworld Award for "Cutest Mortal to Visit the Neitherworld."
  • Lydia was Alyson Court's all-time favorite character and voice role.
  • She was one of a few characters who visited the Neitherworld. The others are: her parents Charles and Delia, her cat Percy, and Bertha and Prudence.

Gallery (BJ:AS)[]

Comparing Versions in Media[]

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Empire Online: "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Is ‘One Of The Most Special Experiences I’ve Ever Had’, Says Winona Ryder – Exclusive" - "Notably, she now has her own TV series, ‘Ghost House With Lydia Deetz’" (May 31, 2024)
  2. ↑ Taken from common promo text with trailers: "Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected 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 rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem."
Español Polski
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.