The first season of “Wednesday” was an absolute hit in the fall of 2022: the story about a frowning girl who dresses in black and white and investigates mystical murders in a small town, attracted millions of viewers around the world, exploded social networks and became a cultural phenomenon.
We will tell you when to wait for the continuation of the story and what is known about the second season.
The main thing about the second season of Wednesday
- Original title: Wednesday
- Genre: detective, comedy, supernatural
- When it comes out: fall 2023 – winter 2023
- Studio: Amazon
- Director: Unknown
- Actors: Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman.
Wednesday season 2 – release date
The first season premiered on November 23, 2022. Ten episodes were released on Netflix at once and instantly trended on Twitter and TikTok. Thanks to the success of the premiere, it was clear that the second season was coming.
On January 6, 2023 on Netflix appeared a teaser, where under the sensational remix of the song Bloody Mary singer Lady Gaga, Jenna Ortega, who played Wednesday, announced the second chapter. The actress joked that there will be “more misery” in the new season.
The announcement of the second season of Wednesday on Netflix from Jenna Ortega, who played the lead role in the series.
While Netflix neither confirms nor denies that the second season will be released in 2023, there’s little chance we’ll see a continuation of the series this year. Shooting “Wednesday” was six months and another seven to eight months of post-production. Work on the second season, most likely, will go on a similar schedule.
In March 2023, lead singer Jenna Ortega said on Jimmy Fallon’s show that the writing team is just discussing where the new season will go, so there’s no script yet. With that in mind, the second season of Wednesday won’t be released until 2024 at the earliest.
MGM Television Studios will once again be in charge of producing the series, with the season release taking place on Netflix. Most likely, the creators will not deviate from the traditions adopted on Netflix: most of the original content is released on the same day in ten episodes at once.
The plot of the series “Wednesday”
Wednesday is the daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams, a famous gothic family. The heroine, like her family, was “born” in 1938 as a character in newspaper comic strips. Then the family first appeared on the pages of The New Yorker under the authorship of Charles Addams (he gave the characters his surname).
The comic book became very popular and was published until the death of the artist in 1988. A characteristic feature that attracted fans so much was the black humor and satire, with which the author approached the plots of stories about Addams. For example, the unconventional and sometimes creepy hobbies and traditions of the family contrast with the fact that all its members remain caring, loving and kind to each other.
Due to the success of the comic books, the characters have appeared in three feature films, a musical, several TV series and animated series, and a video game.
Spoiler Warning: The following outlines the major events of the first season of Wednesday and the fate of the characters. If you have not yet seen the series and plan to watch it, it is better to read interesting facts about the project.
Brief plot of the first season of Wednesday
In the first season, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) flies out of a regular school for an attempt on the life of a classmate (in fact, she was protecting her younger brother from bullying). Her parents decide to transfer their daughter to a closed school called “Nevermore” where “outcasts” – teenagers with unusual looks or supernatural abilities that make them not fit in with the normal kids – “normies”, as they are called in the show.
Wednesday’s parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman), once met for the first time at school, but they’re not eager to share the story of their acquaintance with their daughter. And it is not by chance: in the past they were connected by some terrible and bloody secret.
Gradually immersed in the dark events taking place at school and beyond, Wednesday discovers a psychic gift. She plans to use it in the search for a serial killer terrorizing the local community.
Wednesday Season 2 – Plot
There are no plot details of the upcoming season yet. However, the showrunners of the project have speculated in an interview for TV Line about what they want the second chapter to be and what kind of story image they will be aiming for.
In particular, Miles Millar and Alfred Gough specified that they plan to focus on Wednesday’s relationships with others, not only with friends and classmates, but also with members of the Addams family.
Particular attention will be paid to the girl’s relationship with her mother – Morticia Addams, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. We will also learn more about the rest of the family.
Wednesday will continue to learn empathy and communication with people. Wednesday’s neighbor and friend, the werewolf girl Inid (Emma Myers), will be the central character through which the creators will show their own vision of strong female friendship.
It is already known that most of the events will take place in the school “Nevermore”.
The cast of Wednesday’s second season
Given the mentions in the showrunners’ interviews, the following characters are definitely returning:
- Jenna Ortega (“Scream 6,” “You”) – Wednesday, the daughter of Morticia and Gomez, is a dark girl with psychic powers who plays the cello and writes her novel on a typewriter.
- Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Ocean’s Twelve Friends”) is Morticia Addams, mother of Wednesday and wife of Gomez Addams, a femme fatale beauty.
- Luis Guzman (“Traffic”) – Gomez Addams, Wednesday’s father and Morticia’s husband, who adores his wife and supports his daughter.
- Isaac Ordonez (“The Time Warp”) – Pugsley Addams, Wednesday’s younger brother, a kind and gentle boy.
- Fred Armisen (“Eurotour”) – Fester Addams, eccentric uncle Wednesday, who is a criminal.
- Emma Myers (“The Baker and the Beauty”) – Inid Sinclair, Wednesday’s cheerful neighbor and best friend, a werewolf.
The cast of the second season has yet to be officially confirmed, but there is no doubt that Jenna Ortega will return to the lead role of Wednesday. The actress’ recognizability as the series’ heroine has earned her more than 10 million followers on social media.
Ortega herself shared that she dreams of Lady Gaga’s participation in the second season. Thanks to a remix of the song Bloody Mary, which was released back in 2011, Wednesday’s dance twirled on TikTok and contributed to the show’s popularity. In addition, Lady Gaga has a decent acting background in both movies (A Star Is Born, House of Gucci) and TV series (American Horror Story).
The characters of school principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie, “Game of Thrones”) and botany teacher Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci, “Penelope”) remain in question. Both characters died in the first season finale, though, which may not prevent their return given their importance to the plot and the show’s supernatural world. The same goes for Hunter Doohan’s (“Wild West World”) involvement. He played Tyler Galpin, who was a candidate for Wednesday’s heart but turned out to be a villain.
It can be assumed that the cast of the show will expand and we will see new characters: for example, classmates, teachers or residents of the local community, which is located near the school. The creators of the show do not exclude this option.
With a high degree of probability Wednesday’s classmates will return: Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday, “Lulu and Briggs”) and Eugene Otinger (Musa Mustafa, “The Last Bus on Earth”). The former may become a closer friend of the main character, while the boy may develop a romantic interest in Wednesday.
Scandal involving actor Percy Hines White
In the first season, Wednesday’s potential boyfriend Xavier Thorpe was played by Percy Hines White. The young actor immediately gained rabid popularity.
However, his return to the show was in big question after the scandal broke. It turned out that the 21-year-old White, aged 17 and 20, harassed girls with violence.
Following the allegations, Netflix conducted an internal investigation. According to an insider, bosses were left unhappy with the results. Even cases of harassment and inappropriate behavior during the filming of the show’s first season surfaced.
Despite the rumors, the service has not yet announced an official decision.
Production of the second season of Wednesday
The showrunners said that initially, with the success of the premiere, they expected that the series would consist of several seasons. Therefore, even in the first chapter there were not completely closed story arcs and kept the intrigue, giving the groundwork for the future development of the story. The authors do not reveal any secrets, but they claim that they have a clear plan for character development.
In addition, the creators hardly expected that the show would be so successful. According to the results of the debut week, “Wednesday” broke the bar of 341 million views, surpassing the fourth season of “Very Strange Things”, the absolute hit of Netflix, and second only to “The Squid Game”, which has 572 million views. In its first month, “Wednesday” was watched for 1 billion hours.
A big contribution to the popularity of the show was made by the 20-year-old performer of the main role Jenna Ortega. According to the actress herself, she had to work on her posture: the director Tim Burton wanted her to walk deliberately straight, “as if she had a stack of books or a cup of tea on her head”.
Also a lot of effort makeup artists have made to create the most memorable hairstyle Wednesday – straight bangs and two braids. At first they wanted to do with a wig or false strands, but their appearance did not suit Tim Burton. In the end, Ortega suggested cutting off the bangs, which pleased the director. The actress also shaved the back of the neck, so that the haircut looked perfect.
It was Ortega who came up with the dance that blew up TikTok. She was inspired by 1980s moves, club dancing, the goth subculture and performances by Siouxsie and the Banshees. In the series, the dance was performed to the song Goo Goo Muck by The Cramps – listening to the song increased by 8650% after the series premiere. However, it was Lady Gaga’s Bloody Mary remix that made the piece go viral. Eleven years after its release, the song became the record holder for search queries in Shazam.
It is also known that Jenna Ortega has repeatedly clashed with the show’s writers. She was not satisfied with the lines of the character, and she corrected them right on the set during filming. In particular, the actress said that quite well imagined that her character could say in this or that situation, and therefore often did not agree with what, in her opinion, went against the image.
It is likely that in the second season, the actress’ participation will be expanded. It is not excluded that with such enthusiasm, she may become a writer or director of one of the episodes.
The first season was directed by Tim Burton (“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Alice in Wonderland”), the iconic author of the dark and gothic-inspired “Wednesday.” His involvement has also added to the show’s popularity and signature recognizable style. However, there is no news yet on whether the director will be present on the set going forward.
It is also certain that the creators will retain the location – Nevermore School – and, as before, will be filming a real-life location in the role of an ancient Gothic building. Cantacuzino Castle is located in Busceni, Romania, and it was in its vicinity that most of the scenes of the first season were filmed. Some scenes were filmed in the Botanical Gardens of Bucharest and at the Gara Regala train station.
Interesting facts about the TV series Wednesday
- Christina Ricci, who played the botany teacher Marilyn Thornhill in the series, is known to the generation of millennials as the previous Wednesday. It was her image of a big-eyed girl so well remembered by many in the movies “The Addams Family” and “Addams Family Values”.
- Tim Burton at the third attempt took part in the project associated with the Addams Family. First, he was invited to shoot “The Addams Family” in 1991 (the one with Christina Ricci), but he declined because he was shooting “Batman Returns”. The second attempt was in 2011: Burton signed a contract to participate in an animated movie based on the comics, but the project was not filmed.
- Jenna Ortega took cello lessons for two months to perform the scenes herself. The actress liked it so much that she continued her studies after the filming ended.
- In the series there are pass-hacks for fans of Tim Burton’s work: on the wall of the cafe Weathervane hung photos in frames, which at close examination appear to be shots of the director’s previous projects.
- Fred Armisen, who plays the role of Uncle Fester Addams, shaved his head because he was not satisfied with the look of silicone overlays. Shave his eyebrows, however, he did not, and did without makeup.
- Wednesday’s constant companion – The Thing – was actually played by a real person. The magician Victor Dorobant spent the shooting in a blue suit, thanks to which he was removed from the frame in post-production, leaving only an expressive hand.
Attentive viewers noticed that Jenna Ortega borrowed a famous trick of Sir Anthony Hopkins, when he played Dr. Hannibal Lecter: to add to the character of creepiness, she did not blink.