Why Jeffrey Jones Doesn’t Return as Charles Deetz in ‘Beetlejuice 2’

The new sequel to comedy-horror classic Beetlejuice includes plenty of familiar faces. Michael Keaton returns as the demonic title character, while Winona Ryder as ghost-empath Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as her artsy stepmother Delia again play major roles.

But Jeffrey Jones, who played Deetz patriarch Charles in director Tim Burton’s 1988 cult hit, is notably missing from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (in theaters now). The movie finds clever ways to make the character of Charles a key part of the story while avoiding the actor who originally portrayed him — presumably because of Jones’ legal troubles.

Jones, now 77, pleaded no contest in 2003 to charges of possession of child pornography over his alleged hiring of a 14-year-old boy to pose for lewd snapshots. As Entertainment Weekly reported at the time, the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Amadeus star was sentenced to five years probation, counseling and registration as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

In Florida in 2004 and then in California in 2010, Jones was arrested for failing to update his sex offender status. After pleading guilty to the latter charge, his sentence included hours of community service and additional years of probation, as BBC News reported.

Burton and the stars of Beetlejuice have not commented on Jones or his absence in the new film. However, the way Charles’ fate in the long-awaited sequel is handled may speak for itself. (Spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice plot details follow!)

Charles’ wife Delia breaks the news to Lydia early in the new movie that he has died. Over her narration, Burton uses a stop-motion animation to explain the character’s fate: on a trip abroad for a bird-watching adventure, Charles ended up in the ocean following his plane’s crash landing. A shark chomps off his head and shoulders, killing him. The Deetz family mourns their patriarch at his funeral.

But because the world of Beetlejuice includes a campy depiction of the bureaucratic afterlife, Charles isn’t gone from the story. Down in the netherworld, a body with its head and shoulders bitten off bumbles about, spurting blood while it gurgles somewhat incoherently. An actor who is not Jones provides the voice for what is ultimately one of Burton and his team’s many innovative designs for the recently deceased, who all bear the signs of their death.

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Other stars who Beetlejuice fans may want to see in the long-awaited sequel include Glenn Shadix as amateur paranormal expert Otho Fenlock and Sylvia Sidney as deceased case worker Juno. Sadly, they are among the actors who have passed onto the afterlife offscreen; Shadix died in 2010 at age 58 while Sidney died in 1999 at age 88.

Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis don’t return as Adam and Barbara Maitland — the sweet, Harry Belafonte-loving couple whose death in the original film kicked off our introduction to Burton’s netherworld — because, as Lydia explains in Beetlejuice Beetlejuicethey found a loophole that enabled the two to move on permanently.

Besides, as Davis, 68, told PEOPLE in 2022, the inclusion of her and Baldwin’s deceased characters in the sequel would have been especially tricky. “I have a feeling that ghosts don’t age,” she pointed out. “How would they explain that they’re older?”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice introduces new stars Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Danny DeVito and Willem Dafoe to the franchise. It is in theaters now.