Netflix’s 2022 spin on “The Addams Family” with “Wednesday” was, by every measure, a major success for the streamer. The coming-of-age supernatural comedy horror was a runaway success, inspiring dance memes and Halloween costumes.
In four weeks, the series racked up 1.237 billion hours viewed, quickly rising to become Netflix’s third most-watched TV series of all time, behind only the first season of “Squid Game” and the fourth season of “Stranger Things”.
It also fared quite well with critics, with star Jenna Ortega universally praised. However, if there was one common criticism of the show, it was over the show’s coming-of-age aspects as being akin to a series on The CW.
Indeed, the first season saw Wednesday involved in a love triangle between Hunter Doohan’s Tyler and Percy Hynes White’s Xavier. Ortega herself has previously expressed how she wasn’t a fan of the story arc as it felt too out-of-character for Wednesday.
Whilst appearing on the latest edition of Variety’s Actors on Actors, Ortega confirmed she’s set as a producer on the show’s second season and is getting very hands-on in the process:
“It was naturally already very collaborative. So in preparation for a second season, we wanted to get ahead of the curve and make sure that we could start the conversations earlier, and I’m just so curious. I want to see the outfits, new characters that are coming in, scripts, and they were gracious enough to let me put the producer hat on.”
She also confirmed that one big change is the series is ditching those teen romance shenanigans for the second season, which will have a darker tone but still aims to be fun:
“We’ve decided we want to lean into the horror aspect of the show a little bit more. Because it is so lighthearted, and a show like this with vampires and werewolves and superpowers, you don’t want to take yourself too seriously. We’re ditching any romantic love interest for Wednesday, which is really great.”
The series also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Victor Dorobantu as Thing, Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams, and George Burcea as Lurch. The first season also starred Gwendoline Christie, Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Joy Sunday, Moosa Mostafa, Georgie Farmer, Percy Hynes White and Christina Ricci.
Ortega is working with Burton on the “Beetlejuice” sequel which is currently shooting in the United Kingdom.
