Jenna Ortega’s Return In 2-Year-Old Horror Franchise Gets Huge Setup From New Maxxxine Reveal

One major reveal in the official trailer for MaXXXine, the final installment in Ti West’s hit slasher trilogy, set up a possible return for Jenna Ortega’s X character, Lorraine. Featuring the return of Mia Goth as the titular fame-hungry starlet, MaXXXine will serve as a direct sequel to X, jumping ahead six years after Maxine’s adult film colleagues were slaughtered on a rural Texas farm by the elderly landowners in 1979. With Maxine as the only survivor of the massacre, MaXXXine will follow X‘s final girl as she tries to pivot from adult movie star to Hollywood film star.

One of the many characters who did not make it out of X alive is Lorraine, played by a pre-Wednesday Jenna Ortega. Lorraine was the quiet, timid girlfriend of R.J. (Owen Campbell), the director hired to film the dirty movie Maxine was starring in. Lorraine felt intimated assisting on the shoot given the content, which caused Maxine to find her judgmental and prudish. Although Lorraine’s fate was sealed when her face was blown off toward the end of X, another character’s appearance in the MaXXXine trailer suggests that Ortega could return as Lorraine in some capacity in this final chapter.

Pearl’s Ghost Returning In MaXXXine Means Jenna Ortega’s Lorraine Could Appear To Maxine

Lorraine Is The Only Victim Whose Murder Maxine Witnessed In X

At one point, the Bates Motel from Psycho appears in the MaXXXine trailer. In the window of the Bates family home behind the motel, Maxine sees the ghost of Pearl (played by Goth in old-age makeup), the elderly woman who killed the rest of the film crew in X with her husband Howard (Stephen Ure). X‘s ending showed Maxine narrowly escaping death when Howard died of a heart attack and Pearl became incapacitated. As Maxine was about to drive away, she was provoked by Pearl’s desperate, cutting words about her fleeting worth and beauty, and reversed the truck to run Pearl over, instantly crushing her skull.

This vision of Pearl at the Bates Motel in the MaXXXine trailer, which parallels Maxine’s first sighting of Pearl in X, is paired with a voiceover of Kevin Bacon’s private investigator character in MaXXXine telling her, “the past ain’t finished with you yet. It’s gonna keep knocking at your door.” This daunting message and Pearl’s return in MaXXXine hint that the massacre on the farm is coming back to haunt Maxine, which could trigger her to see the ghosts of the other victims, like Ortega’s Lorraine.

In X, Howard locked Lorraine in the basement of the main house, where she encountered the naked corpse of an unknown man hanging from the ceiling by his wrists. Lorraine desperately tried to escape the basement before Maxine eventually managed to let her out. Maxine insisted they stick together, but Lorraine wanted nothing to do with her and headed for the door, screaming that she hated her. As soon as she stepped outside, Lorraine was shot in the face by Howard.

Even though she didn’t get along with Lorraine and knew her the least well of the bunch, Lorraine’s was the only murder in X that Maxine actually witnessed. If Maxine harbors any guilt or trauma from Lorraine getting killed in such close vicinity to her, it would make sense if she started having visions of her too. Lorraine could also appear to Maxine as a manifestation of her fear of being implicated in the massacre by the police, since she was the only survivor and didn’t report the murders, it seems.

MaXXXine Setting Up The Movie From X Means Jenna Ortega Could Return In A Different Way

Lorraine Is Featured In The Recovered Footage Of The Farmer’s Daughters Movie

Another way Ortega could return as Lorraine in MaXXXine is via the recovered footage of the adult movie the film crew was making in X. After spending the day assisting on the set of the film, titled The Farmer’s Daughter, Lorraine decided she wanted to star in it herself. R.J. gave her some major pushback but eventually caved, which he later regretted. Lorraine’s scene with the film’s male star Jackson Hole (Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi) was the last thing they shot before calling it a night, at which point the massacre began.

X‘s ending circled back to the opening scene, in which the police try to figure out what exactly went down the night before on the farm. One officer found R.J.’s video camera, which would still contain the raw footage they shot for The Farmer’s Daughters. Since Lorraine filmed a scene, Ortega could appear in MaXXXine if any of this film footage is shown during the police investigation or gets leaked to the public. At the very least, photos of all the victims of the massacre, including Ortega’s Lorraine, could be shown as an X Easter egg in MaXXXine.