Wednesday Addams’ adventures are far from over. The Netflix series Wednesday became one of the streamer’s most popular shows of all time, and now there’s more on the way. Season 2 has already been confirmed and will begin filming in 2024.
Fans have been waiting with bated breath for news about Wednesday season 2. Hollywood Life has rounded up everything we know so far about the next round of chaos for Wednesday Addams.
‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Confirmed: What We Know So Far
Netflix made the official renewal announcement on January 6, 2023. Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams says in the season 2 announcement video, “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hunted, haunted, and mimicked millions of times across the internet. It’s been pure torture. Thank you.”
The streaming service said “more misery is coming” and the “global phenomenon will return for season 2.” The video has been viewed more than 18 million times since it dropped.
“It’s been incredible to create a show that has connected with people across the world. Thrilled to continue Wednesday’s tortuous journey into season two. We can’t wait to dive head first into another season and explore the kooky spooky world of Nevermore. Just need to make sure Wednesday hasn’t emptied the pool first,” creators/showrunners/executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar told Tudum.com.
Wednesday became an instant hit for Netflix when it debuted on November 23, 2022. In just its first week, Wednesday had 341.23M hours viewed and became the record-holder for the most hours viewed in a week for any English-language TV series on Netflix. Wednesday beat Stranger Things 4, which previously held the title with 335M hours viewed in the first week. Wednesday broke another Netflix record in its second week with 411.29M hours viewed.
The series now ranks #2 on the Most Popular (English) TV list with 1.237 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days. More than 182 million households have seen the show since it debuted. At the time season 2 was announced, Wednesday had spent 6 consecutive weeks with over 100 million hours viewed on the English TV list.
Wednesday also became a TikTok sensation. As of January 2023, #WednesdayAddams had over 22 billion views. The iconic dance scene from Wednesday has also gone viral across social media. Fan-created content using “Bloody Mary” by Lady Gaga led to a streaming increase of more than 1,800% of the song on Spotify compared to the month prior to the show’s release.
The love for Wednesday Addams began when the fictional family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams. The first Addams Family television series premiered in 1964. Feature films starring Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams debuted in the 1990s.
With the first season of Wednesday being such a massive hit for Netflix, the streaming service is bound to go even bigger for season 2. Netflix will likely want to capitalize quickly on the show’s popularity and get to work on a second season sooner rather than later. The show’s main appeal is to the young adult audience, but it’s evident that Wednesday has been enjoyed by fans of all ages.
Production & Release Date For Wednesday Season 2
Wednesday season 2 is expected to start production in April 2024, according to Variety. Production was put on hold as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA fought for new deals with the studios. Filming will be moving to Ireland for season 2. The first season of Wednesday was filmed from September 2021 to March 2022 in Romania.
Netflix hasn’t revealed any hints about a release date for season 2. Given that production won’t start until spring 2024, it’s looking like Wednesday season 2 won’t premiere until early 2025.
Jenna will have a hectic schedule in 2024. In addition to Wednesday season 2, she’ll also be squeezing in filming Scream 7. The actress opened up about her intense filming schedule in the first season.“It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had. Or show up to my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me,” the actress admitted at a Netflix-hosted Q&A panel, according to Variety. “It was just constantly going, and if you could on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day.’”
Jenna also had fencing and cello lessons on top of filming. “I did not get any sleep. I pulled my hair out,” she said. “There’s so many FaceTime calls that my dad answered of me hysterically crying.”
There were rumors that Wednesday would leave Netflix for Prime Video since Amazon recently bought MGM, the studio behind Wednesday. What’s On Netflix denied the rumors and explained that Netflix has “ultimate control over the future of the series for the foreseeable future.”
‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Cast & Crew
Wednesday wouldn’t be Wednesday without Jenna. The Golden Globe nominee will be back for season 2, in addition to actor Steve Buscemi, whose casting was announced in April 2024. He will play the new principal of Nevermore Academy, per Variety.
Victor Dorobantu’s Thing is bound to tag along. Jenna revealed in her Elle cover story that she will also be an executive producer of Wednesday season 2.
Jenna recently opened up about how “protective” she is of Wednesday. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday because it’s so easy to fall into that category, especially with this type of show. Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle made no sense,” the actress said on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
She continued, “There was a line about this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh my god, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No.’ There was times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in the sense where I just started changing lines.” Jenna admitted that she grew “very, very protective of her, but you can’t lead a story and have no emotional arc because then it’s boring and nobody likes you.”
Jenna’s comments caused some controversy on the internet, but Alfred Gough and Miles Millar had nothing but praise for her. “You’re dealing with an iconic character and you’re putting it in a way that’s never been done before,” Alfred told The Wrap. “We had a million discussions with Tim before the casting because we were like, ‘If we don’t get the right Wednesday, we’re all screwed.’ Once we got Jenna on board, it was a million discussions with her. We all wanted to do the character justice and make it great. And look, I think the response has been fantastic. She’s now the iconic Wednesday.”
In a new interview, the Scream 6 star also revealed that she actually turned down the role of Wednesday several times. “I got the email, passed on it. I had done so much TV in my life, all I’ve ever wanted to do is film,” Jenna told The Sunday Times. “When I first started acting, I don’t want to say nobody believed in me, but at the same time nobody believed in me. You have to prove yourself. It’s only in the last three or four years that I’ve been able to start going up for film.”
She added that she initially thought that signing onto the show would prevent her from “doing other jobs I really wanted and cared about. The only reason I went back is because Tim [Burton] is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well. But even then I said, ‘Ah, no, I think I’m OK,’ a couple [more] times.”
Jenna Ortega gave a taste of what’s to come during her Variety Actors on Actors interview with Elle Fanning on June 7. She said they want to “lean into the horror aspect of the show” more in season 2.
Since Wednesday will likely be returning for another semester at Nevermore Academy, her new friends are likely to return: Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair, Percy Hynes White as Xavier Thorpe, Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay, Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus, Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Otinger.
Even though it seemed like Tyler Galpin was being locked away after being revealed as the Hyde, Hunter Doohan thinks Tyler’s story is far from over.
“I just want to explore what’s next for Tyler, and if he’s going to come back after Wednesday,” he told Hollywood Life EXCLUSIVELY. “I guess the idea left at the end is that he’s really pissed off enough to transform in that armed vehicle and I assume escape.”
Tyler was under the control of Christina Ricci’s Marilyn Thornhill, a.k.a. Laurel Gates, throughout the first season. Hunter noted that he would love to see “what Tyler and the Hyde are like without having a master in Thornhill.” Thornhill’s fate is left open at the end of the season, so it’s possible that Christina could return at some point.
“I think considering the fact we don’t see Laurel dead and we do see Tyler’s eyes open, I feel like things probably aren’t entirely wrapped up there,” Jenna told TV Guide.
Christina appeared as a guest on The View on March 15 and opened up about being a part of Wednesday. “It was really fun, and I was really flattered and touched that they included me,” she said. “That character is such a huge part of my career. I get asked about it every time I do press. Almost everybody who comes up to me on the street talks about Wednesday. So to be part of the new iteration of it was really meaningful to me, and I was so excited to work with Tim Burton again, and Jenna is so good. It was really fun to see what she’s doing with the character and how amazing she is.”
The rest of the Addams family is expected to pop up in season 2 at some point. Fans loved seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams. Wherever Morticia and Gomez are, George Burcea’s Lurch is never far behind. Hopefully, we’ll see more of Isaac Ordonez’s Pugsley in season 2. Maybe he’ll join Wednesday at Nevermore. Since he loves mischief, Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester should pay a visit to Wednesday at some point.
“We felt like we just touched the surface with those characters and the actors are so amazing in those roles,” Miles told TVLine. “Catherine is, I think, an iconic Morticia. The relationship between Wednesday and Morticia is also essential to the show, and the idea that Wednesday is trying to forge her own path outside the family is important.”
Netflix hasn’t released any casting announcements for season 2 as of yet. However, fans already have some thoughts as to who they’d like to see in season 2. The one at the top of the list is Lady Gaga since the pop star/actress and the show are so linked now. “If Lady Gaga were to be a part of it, they’d have to be two monsters who understand each other,” Jenna told Variety at the Golden Globes.
Another popular choice for season 2 is Anjelica Huston, who played Morticia Addams in the ’90s Addams Family movies. Since there’s an opening for a new Headmaster at Nevermore, she could definitely fill that position.
There’s been no word if Tim Burton will return as a director and executive producer in season 2. He directed the first 4 episodes of the first season.
Plot & Storyline Theories For ‘Wednesday’ Season 2
The writers and executive producers haven’t confirmed any set plans for season 2, but they have planned ahead. “For us, it’s always looking at the future, and when we sit down to create a show, it’s looking at multiple seasons, ideally,” co-showrunner Miles Millar told Variety. “That’s never expected, but that’s the anticipation that hopefully the show is successful. So you always lay out at least three or four seasons’ worth of potential storylines for the characters. It can evolve and change. Often, you want to see which characters or cast pop and who you like to write for. So you want to keep it open and organic enough to change it and evolve, but we certainly have a pretty clear runway of what we want to do in future seasons.”
Alfred Gough also teased to The Wrap that the supporting characters will be explored in season 2. “We set the table,” Alfred. “You’ve seen the world. You’ve seen Wednesday. And now all of those other characters that you saw will be able to be fleshed out more and you’ll be able to learn more about them. That’s certainly exciting to us.”
While on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in March 2023, Jenna gave a little hint as to what to expect in season 2. “We just started getting a writers’ room together and talking about it,” she said. Everybody’s being really cool. I think we want to up the kind of the horror aspect a little bit and get Wednesday out of the romantic situation and just let her be her own individual and fight her own crime.
Jenna gave more hints about season 2 in her sit-down interview with Elle Fanning for Variety. “I just got a couple of the outlines for the first couple episodes. So it’s still very much coming together,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations and we’ve decided things that we want to enhance and dive a little bit deeper in. I think we want to lean into the horror aspect of the show more because it is so light-hearted. I think that we’re kind of ditching any romantic love interest for Wednesday, which is great. And then also, we have such incredible female leads in the show.” She added, “I think we’re gonna get a lot more bolder. A lot more dark.”
Jenna Ortega teases #Wednesday Season 2: "I think we want to lean into the horror aspect of the show a little bit more…I think that we're kind of ditching any romantic love interest for Wednesday, which is really great." https://t.co/MqDrkNvX1E pic.twitter.com/Mv7SinRUdJ
— Variety (@Variety) June 7, 2023
At the end of the first season, Nevermore Academy was shut down for the remainder of the semester. Co-showrunner Alfred Gough told THR that the school being closed “gave us the most possibilities for season 2, and I think that’s something that we’re excited to explore.”
He noted that the show is ultimately about the “female friendship” between Wednesday and Enid. However, many fans believe Wednesday and Enid have romantic feelings for each other. Here’s what Miles had to say:
“As Al said, this idea of sisterhood is key to the show. We’re not gonna discount anything, and, obviously, sometimes characters reveal themselves, which is the fun thing we love about television, that it’s an organic journey. We have a roadmap, and we’d like to have routes along that map that take you in unexpected directions. So, we’re open to everything. We wanna explore that friendship in every way, but we’re not gonna be, this is where you sometimes get misdirected by fans and things like that, so it’s just being really open to see how those characters develop and that friendship. As Al said, that friendship is key to our sort of vision of the show.”
Wednesday did open her heart a little in season 1 and developed feelings for Tyler. When he turned out to be the Hyde, that was obviously a shock to the system. In the final moments of the finale, Xavier gave Wednesday her first phone and hinted that she should text him sometime. Xavier and Wednesday definitely had a will-they-or-won’t-they element in season 1, so season 2 could go down the romantic route for them.
One theory is that Principal Weems, played by Gwendoline Christie, could return. The character died in the season 1 finale, but she could have faked her death with her shapeshifting abilities. One of the showrunners weighed in on the theory of Weems returning. “We like the idea that people die in this world, that there are real sacrifices and there’s loss — and that Wednesday has to react to that,” Miles told TV Guide. “For us, the fact that we could kill such a significant character, it was important that we did that.”
He added, “That said, it’s a supernatural show, there are always ways people can return. Never say never, but at this point, she’s definitely dead.”
Jenna Ortega adamantly told TV Guide that she refuses to “accept that as the truth.” Gwendoline added fuel to the fire that Weems could possibly return at some point. “I feel Larissa Weems would never be dominated by something as commonplace as death,” she said.
Jenna again addressed Gwendoline’s possible return to the show in her conversation with Elle Fanning. “I would die to work with Gwendoline Christine for the rest of my life,” Jenna said. “I’m doing everything in my power to throw out the most insane plots that would possible bring this woman back from the dead. I am trying. It would be a shame to go on without her.”
During Netflix’s TUDUM event on June 17, the Wednesday cast filmed a video and discussed popular fan theories. “Wednesday season 2 is being worked on right now, and the storyline is so top secret, even we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Emma Myers said in the video.
So, Wednesday will return for season 2, but there will be a wait. But all good things come to those who wait, right? The hype around Wednesday isn’t slowing down one bit, so you know Netflix isn’t going to want to lose any momentum. Hollywood Life will keep you updated on all the latest Wednesday season 2 news as it’s released.