Though Adam and Barbara Maitland were noticeably absent in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the couple could return to Tim Burton’s iconic horror-comedy franchise in Beetlejuice 3. After dying at the start of 1988’s Beetlejuice, Adam and Barbara learn that newly deceased people must remain in their homes for 125 years before they are able to “move on” to the afterlife. However, in the 2024 sequel, Lydia Deetz revealed that she and the Maitlands found an unknown “loophole” that allowed them to leave early, somewhat explaining why they aren’t around in the film.

With or without this loophole, Adam and Barbara could’ve appeared with the other returning characters in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which only took place roughly 40 years after the original film. Since Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis are still active in the entertainment industry, they can reprise their ᴅᴇᴀᴅ characters in the upcoming Beetlejuice 3, a project currently in development. The new movie could explore many possible reasons for how and why the Maitlands were able to move out of their house.

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The Maitlands’ Loophole Was Helping Lydia To Grow Into Adulthood

Lydia Gave Adam And Barbara A New Purpose

One Beetlejuice theory suggests that Adam and Barbara were able to break the rules of having to stay in their house through the positive impact they had on the young Lydia Deetz. When Lydia moved into the Maitlands’ house with her parents in the first film, she was so isolated and unhappy, only to grow close to the ghostly couple. She even went as far as to say that she’d rather die and be with Adam and Barbara rather than stay alive and live with Charles and Delia.

However, Adam and Barbara convinced Lydia that she needed to live her life, allowing her to grow up into the adult seen in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Though Adam and Barbara were forced to haunt their house after their deaths, after bonding with Lydia, the couple found a new purpose and sought to take care of her as opposed to driving her and her parents away, giving them the fulfillment they needed to pᴀss on into the next world. The original movie ends with them clearly parenting her and giving her the love and support she so clearly craves.

Though Lydia became an adult and started a family in the years following the first film, she had some trouble connecting with her daughter, Astrid. While the two of them are closer than ever by the ending of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Lydia’s story isn’t quite over, as she is still haunted by visions of Betelgeuse. With Charles and Delia now ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and in the Great Beyond, Lydia may still need some more parental guidance in this new chapter of her life. This would give Adam and Barbara a reason to return in Beetlejuice 3 and give Lydia the help she needs in her adult life.

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The Maitlands Moved On When Lydia Moved Away

Adam And Barbara May Move Back To Winter River With Lydia And Astrid

While the Maitlands found a loophole in the rules and were able to leave their house early, they definitely stuck around for a while after the events of Beetlejuice. However, thanks to one particular element in the sequel, it is likely they moved on within 13 years following the ending. Since Lydia didn’t know about Jeremy Frazier killing his parents and his death at his house in 2001 in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, it has been theorized that she moved out of Winter River before then and lost touch with everything going on in town.

If Adam and Barbara chose to help raise Lydia with Charles and Delia in Winter River after finding the loophole, they may have stayed in that house for at most 13 years after meeting Lydia in 1988. They may have also been allowed to move on after Lydia departed from Winter River and went out on her own before the Fraziers’ demise in 2001. However, it is possible that Lydia chose to move back to Winter River with Astrid at the end of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, since the latter seemed to have taken a liking to the town, giving Adam and Barbara a reason to come back to their old house to visit her.

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Otho’s Botched Exorcism Freed The Maitlands

Adam And Barbara Were Bound To Their House Before Otho Worked His Magic

In Beetlejuice, Delia Deetz’s dubious interior designer, Otho, uses the Handbook for the Recently Deceased to perform a séance in an attempt to communicate with Adam and Barbara’s spirits. However, he accidentally performs an exorcism on the Maitlands’ spirits, causing the couple to painfully age and decay to the point that they seemed to be dying all over again. It’s unclear what kind of impact that had on the two ghosts, but there’s a good chance something serious happened.

Though Lydia stops the ritual by summoning Betelgeuse and agreeing to marry him, it is possible that the exorcism freed them from the spiritual confines of their house, allowing them to leave it early. This failed exorcism could be explored in Beetlejuice 3, possibly as Lydia tries to find a way to prevent Betelgeuse’s spirit from interfering with her life any further. She might dabble in some questionable methods in order to take action. It would be especially meaningful for the third film to bring up this exorcism again, as it was the reason Lydia and Betelgeuse became spiritually linked in the first place.

2

The Maitlands Never Technically Died In Their House

The Maitlands’ Loophole May Have Been Due To The Actual Site Of Their Deaths

Though Adam and Barbara died in a car crash at the Winter River bridge in Beetlejuice, the couple returned to their house. This rule conflicts with the fates of other characters in the Beetlejuice franchise. Specifically, Charles Deetz died in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice when he was eaten by a shark after his plane crashed into the ocean. For some reason, Charles never had to haunt his and Delia’s city apartment for 125 years. He just went straight to the waiting room in the afterlife with the upper half of his body still chomped off. The same happened with Delia when she was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Since Adam and Barbara didn’t die in their house in Beetlejuice, it stands to reason that they shouldn’t have had to remain in their house, just as Charles didn’t have to stay in his. Whether Adam and Barbara should have gotten a pᴀss to leave their home or Charles should’ve been forced to haunt his home, this issue could have been the result of an oversight in the afterlife’s congested and disorganized bureaucracy, which may be addressed in Beetlejuice 3.

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Adam And Barbara Are Working Somewhere In The Afterlife

Adam And Barbara May Have Gotten New Jobs Like Richard

Despite Adam and Barbara’s story, the rules about hauntings have been vague and contradictory in the Beetlejuice movies. For instance, Astrid’s father Richard died in a boating accident in Brazil well before the events of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and his spirit was seen later working at the Immigration Office in the afterlife. However, he tells Lydia and Astrid that he occasionally visits them, despite the fact that they haven’t seen his spirit before, implying he has more freedom than other spirits.

It’s unknown why Richard wasn’t forced to stay in his house after his death. It is possible that his death, taken outside his home, is what landed him a job as a ghostly bureaucratic worker instead of a role as a poltergeist on the mortal plane. Thus, instead of leaving for the Great Beyond, Adam and Barbara could have become workers like Richard in the afterlife, a loophole that could also give them the chance to appear in Beetlejuice 3, since the movie will almost certainly revisit those topsy-turvy halls.