The new sequel to the comedy-horror classic Beetle juice features many familiar faces. Michael Keaton returns as the demonic title character, while Winona Ryder reprises her roles as ghost empath Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara reprises her roles as her artistic stepmother Delia.

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

Jones, now 77, pleaded no contest in 2003 to charges of possession of child pornography stemming from his alleged hiring of a 14-year-old boy to pose for indecent photographs. 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 punishment included hours of community service and additional years of probation, BBC News reported.

Burton and the stars of Beetle juice have not commented on Jones or his absence from the new film. However, the way Charles’ fate is handled in the highly anticipated sequel speaks for itself. (Spoilers ahead Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Plot details to follow!)

Charles’ wife Delia tells Lydia early in the new film that he has died. During her narration, Burton uses stop-motion animation to explain the character’s fate: while on a bird-watching trip abroad, Charles is swept into the ocean after his plane crash-lands. A shark bites off his head and shoulders, killing him. The Deetz family mourns their patriarch at his funeral.

But because the world of Beetle juice features a campy depiction of the bureaucratic afterlife, Charles is not absent from the story. Down in the underworld, a body with its head and shoulders bitten off staggers around, spouting blood as it gurgles somewhat incoherently. An actor who is not Jones provides the voice for what ends up being one of Burton and his team’s many innovative designs for the recently deceased, all of whom bear the marks of their death.

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Other stars who Beetle juice Fans want to see Glenn Shadix as amateur paranormal expert Otho Fenlock and Sylvia Sidney as deceased social worker Juno in the highly anticipated sequel. Sadly, they are among the actors who have passed away off-screen; Shadix died in 2010 at the age of 58, while Sidney died in 1999 at the age of 88.

Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis will not be returning as Adam and Barbara Maitland — the sweet, Harry Belafonte-loving couple whose deaths in the original film introduced us to Burton’s underworld — because, as Lydia explains in Beetlejuice Beetlejuicethey found a loophole in the law that allowed the two to continue permanently.

Plus, as Davis, 68, told PEOPLE in 2022, incorporating her and Baldwin’s deceased characters into the sequel would have been extra tricky. “I feel like ghosts don’t age,” she noted. “How would they explain being older?”

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