Why Beetlejuice 2 Killed Off Catherine O’Hara’s Delia

Heavy spoilers for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” to follow.

Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” has a rather peculiar relationship with death. It flips the script on the possession horror film; rather than having evil ghosts haunting the living, it follows a ghost couple being terrorized by an obnoxious family in their own home. Additionally, the film’s portrayal of the afterlife is neither a hellish inferno nor a perfect utopia. Instead, it is horribly dull and ridden with bureaucracy. But it doesn’t stop there; “Beetlejuice” also has some, shall we say, creative takes on dying, like how its young heroine Lydia (Winona Ryder) spends most of the movie saying she wants to die by suicide so she can spend more time with her ghost friends. Death is absurd, unpredictable, and even alluring in the world of “Beetlejuice.” 

It makes sense, then, that the sequel would double down on the deaths. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” begins with the death of a major character from the original 1988 film — a hilariously weird and specific death that is pure Burton. From there, it becomes a virtual death parade, as characters both old and new leave the mortal plane and join the endless waiting room of the afterlife.

Arguably, though, the most surprising death in the film is that of Catherine O’Hara’s Delia Deetz, who gets the most ridiculous accidental death in the movie when she’s bitten by poisonous snakes she thought had been drained of their venom. As co-writer Miles Millar told The Hollywood Reporter, the idea to kill Delia off actually came from O’Hara herself. What’s more, O’Hara originally though Delia should die by suicide “just because she’s so in love with [her late husband] Charles.”

“It’s a great idea, but it felt like a weird well to go down in a comedy to have a main character [die by] suicide toward the end of the movie,” Millar explained. “What’s a more creative, bizarre way that she could die? That was an accidental death. So we got to [the] idea of the asps, which we really loved.”

Played by O’Hara, Delia was arguably the standout character of the original “Beetlejuice” — an eccentric New York yuppie with some truly bizarre taste for art and some great taste in wrestling. Though Michael Keaton’s Betelgeuse and Ryder’s Lydia became the stars of the franchise (with the characters going on to headline their own cartoon series), Delia is what makes the first movie endlessly fun.

What makes her death interesting is that O’Hara initially thought Delia should just die by suicide. The first “Beetlejuice” had a rather staggering number of jokes about suicide that it takes rather lightly, but to actually have a character do it in 2024 and treat it as a silly joke may be crossing a line — even if the character of Betelgeuse constantly crosses lines. Still, it is pretty funny and unsurprising that Delia would be this distressed by Charles’ death, but also use the situation to make a grand art installation out of her grief, culminating in her accidental death by poisonous snakes.

Only in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the shenanigans don’t stop at the moment of death. As soon as Delia makes it to the afterlife, she tries to Karen her way into speaking with a manager and entering a VIP section to get better treatment. Thankfully, she eventually ends up finding Charles and heads to the great beyond on the Soul Train.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is now playing in theaters.