Beetlejuice Beetlejuice scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar opened up about the horror comedy sequel’s bizarre ending sequence involving Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz. The film marks Gough and Miller’s second collaboration with director Tim Burton and lead star Jenna Ortega, after working together on Netflix’s hit Wednesday series.

The sequel ends with Lydia seemingly getting the happy ending she deserves. Things suddenly take a weird turn, when Astrid gives birth to Baby Betelgeuse. However, as it turns out, this was all just Lydia’s nightmare, as she wakes up with Beetlejuice beside her. This seemingly teases the character’s never-ending connection with the fan-favorite ghost. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gough and Miller shared that the unusual ending was intentional, since they didn’t want to wrap up the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice story with a nice ending.

Writer Alfred Gough reveals his, Miles Millar, and Tim Burton’s thought process for not using Beetlejuice’s original leads in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

“We didn’t want the movie to feel like it got wrapped up in a bow, so we had the idea with Tim of Lydia giving up on her show and she and Astrid [Ortega] go off on this trip that she was going to take with her dad,” Gough said.

It was the end-of-the-movie curveball, so you realize nothing in this world ever gets wrapped up in a bow.

He continued, “It was Tim’s idea to do this sequence and make it look like she gets married and everything is going great — and then she has this Betelgeuse baby, and you realize it’s a dream. It was the end-of-the-movie curveball, so you realize nothing in this world ever gets wrapped up in a bow.”

In addition, Millar also confirmed that the ending sequence was the last one they wrote, revealing that baby Betelgeuse’s appearance was just “too perfect” for the film. Millar added, “We initially turned that scene in the hospital hours before the strike was called. It was the last thing we wrote for the movie at all. It just felt bonkers and inspired to have it seem like it’d be this nice, warm, cuddly feeling and then the Betelgeuse baby comes back, and it’s too perfect.”

Tim Burton Returned to the Director’s Chair for the Beetlejuice Sequel

Burton directed Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from a script written by Gough and Millar. The film stars Michael Keaton, Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito, Arthur Conti, and more. In a previous interview, Burton shared that the main cast did a lot of improv during production. “It was a bit like the first movie,” he said. “I tried to treat this movie like the spirit of the first movie where we had a script, but there was a lot of improv that went on. Since making its theatrical debut last Sept. 6, the film has already earned a worldwide gross of over $167 million against its reported budget of around $100 million.

The official synopsis for the sequel reads, “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.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now playing in theaters worldwide.