Wednesday Season 2: Release Date, Trailer, Cast, and Everything You Need to Know
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MATTHIAS CLAMER/NETFLIX
Warning: spoilers for Wednesday season 1 ahead.
It's not The End — Wednesday season 2 is officially on the way, Outcasts. In late 2022, everyone's favorite sadistic big sis finally got her own TV series with Netflix's Wednesday. The streamer's live-action series, all about Wednesday Addams of the Addams Family, came straight from the deliciously twisted mind of Tim Burton, becoming of the most popular series in mere weeks. Since then, the countdown for season 2 has been on.
21-year-old Jenna Ortega is the latest actress to step into the black-and-white attire of Wednesday Addams, and her modern version of the character can definitely brush shoulders with Yellowjackets star Christina Ricci's beloved, iconic portrayal of Wednesday from the early ‘90s. The gothic, death-obsessed teen and her macabre-loving family are back in the spotlight, and we truly can’t get enough.
Related: All the Wednesday Easter Eggs & Hidden References You Missed
If you've watched season 1 of Netflix's Wednesday, you know that by the finale in episode 8, we receive many satisfying — and TBH, shocking — answers to the mysteries Wednesday is wrapped up in for the season's entire arc, but we're left with a lot of questions, too. No spoilers, but… will Tyler return after escaping custody? Is Wednesday still in danger? Who sent her that stalker-like text message? What will happen to Nevermore now that Principal Weems is dead?
Below, we've gathered a complete guide to everything we do know so far about Wednesday season 2, including the next installment's release date, plot details, cast info, trailer, and updates from the cast. Keep reading to find out all the details, or jump to your preferred section using the arrows below.
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When will Wednesday season 2 be released on Netflix?
Wednesday season 1 debuted on Netflix on November 23, 2022, to popular and critical acclaim. The show broke record after record in its first full week on the streaming platform. Variety reported that Wednesday was watched for almost 6 billion minutes during its first five days available, becoming the second biggest week of streaming ever recorded by Nielsen, only behind Stranger Things 4. On January 6, 2023, Netflix announced the show's season 2 renewal with a mashup of clips from Season 1, videos of fans from around the world, and a new voiceover from Wednesday herself.
On November 13, 2023, Deadline confirmed that season 2 of Wednesday will be moving its filming location — and has locked down a production start date. The first season of the series was filmed in Romania, but, according to Deadline, with “logistical challenges." As a result, the next installment will now be filmed in Ireland and was tentatively slated to begin filming in late April 2024. Wednesday was reportedly one of Netflix's priority series post-strikes, so it's possible then that new episodes could make their way to our screens by the end of 2024. Stay tuned.
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What will Wednesday season 2 be about?
Wednesday has been called a unique mix of fantasy-horror-mystery-comedy – but has been described first and foremost as a coming-of-age series. The 8-episode first season followed Wednesday Addams' first year as a student at Nevermore Academy. The first chapter of Wednesday's story depicted her attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore. The Wednesday season 1 finale ended with multiple cliffhangers and a massive twist, so there's definitely more to explore — and many questions that need answering — in the second season.
Related: Jenna Ortega Wanted Wednesday & Enid to End Up Together
The showrunners of the new coming-of-age series have already teased their storytelling plans to continue the Wednesday universe. While speaking to TV Line, co-showrunners Miles Millar and Al Gough revealed that they planned Wednesday storylines as far out as “four seasons."
“We felt like we just touched the surface with those characters, and the actors are so amazing in those roles," Millar said. He also acknowledged that the show's focus on Wednesday Addams and her journey “to forge her own path outside the family is important," but that the writers' room would be “definitely” be interested in featuring more of the Addams family dynamic in future seasons.
“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," Millar also shared with 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.”
Related: Hilarious Wednesday Set Pics Reveal How Thing’s Scenes Were Shot
The visual effects team for Wednesday told J-14 which characters they would like to explore more in the second season. At the top of that list? Thing. “I think it would be fantastic to explore what may have happened to lead him to be severed, possibly,” said Lon Molnar, co-president of the MARZ VFX team. They also expressed that they'd be excited to do “anything with that character front and center.”
“…We’re ready to take the helm and help him tell that story," said Molnar. "We’re open to anything.” MARZ VFX producer Casey Sincic shared that further developing Uncle Fester's character is also something the team would be interested in. "The work that we did with [Fred Armisen's] character was pretty minor,” said Sincic. “It was the electricity effects that he used, but I would love to see him be a bigger part of the show in Season 2.”
Series star Jenna Ortega also has some ideas about what she'd like to see from her character Wednesday in future seasons. “I kind of want her to be darker,” Ortega told Entertainment Tonight in November 2022. “I want her to get more in the nitty-gritty of things and not play things so safe, because there are a lot of lines about her saving the school and doing whatever, but for me, her main drive with the monster is of a competitiveness. Kind of, ‘Man, how’s this guy doing this?’”
“I think I want it to continue down an antihero stream rather than a typical hero," added Ortega. While guest appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in March 2023, Ortega shared some exciting new details on the progress of season 2 and where the plot is headed.
“We just started getting a writers' room together and kind of talking about it, and everyone’s being really cool," said Ortega. "I think we want to up the horror aspect of it a little bit and then get Wednesday out of the romantic situation and just let her be her own individual and fight her own crime.”
In June 2023, Ortega spoke with fellow actor Elle Fanning for Variety's Actors on Actors series, and emphasized this point, saying: “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."
On January 15, 2024, while speaking to E! on the red carpet ahead of the Emmys 2023, Ortega teased even more about the upcoming sophomore season, and emphasized that our heroine doesn't really change, which is “the great thing about her.” “I've received some scripts for the second season," she said, noting how horror-heavy the tone was. "There’s really, really good one-liners, and I think everything’s bigger, it’s a lot more action-packed. Each episode will probably feel a little bit more like a movie, which is nice.”
Elaborating on that comment, Ortega explained why the scale of Wednesday season 2 will also feel a lot bigger during her Vanity Fair's 2024 Hollywood Issue interview. “In the first season, we had episodes that really stood out visually, like the dance episode was a really big one for people, and that setting was very particular and it felt like Prom Night, a little bit, or Carrie. Every episode [of season two] that I’ve read so far is like that,” the actor revealed. “It just stands out on its own as a very memorable scene or bit or setting, which I think is what I’m most excited for because to pull that off for eight episodes is, I think, really incredible and really lucky.” We are READY.
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Who plays Wednesday Addams in Wednesday?
Jenna Ortega was cast in the show's titular role back in May 2021. She posted a photo of herself on Instagram holding the pilot's script, with the caption: “New chapter. Hope I can do Wednesday Addams justice. *snaps twice*."
A little over a year later, Netflix released the first look at Ortega's transformation into the character — and she's terrifyingly unrecognizable as Wednesday Addams, which we now know all too well. In the show, Ortega wears Wednesday's signature white-collared, long-sleeve black dress, her long braided pigtails, her strikingly pale complexion, and her apathetically gaunt expression. Ortega's metamorphosis into the character is so perfect it's almost scary. Well, I guess that's the point, right?
Related: Jenna Ortega Shared How Wednesday Influenced Her Own Style
In November 2022, Ortega sat down with Teen Vogue for her very own episode of “Character Study." Ortega opened up about what it took to become Wednesday Addams and shared behind-the-scenes tidbits about her transformation.
“I kind of felt like I was being pranked or something,” Ortega told Teen Vogue of the moment she got an email from Tim Burton saying he was interested in meeting her for the part. The role was a match made in heaven for Ortega, who says she was “compared to Wednesday” her entire life.
“Because I’m very dry, and I don’t think people can tell when I’m being serious or when I’m being sarcastic. And I didn’t think it was that bad until we were on set, sometimes, and Tim might say, ‘Ugh… that was dark,'” Ortega said in the video with a smile.
Ortega was seriously dedicating to becoming Wednesday, previously sharing with Netflix that she took fencing lessons and cello lessons twice a week to prepare for the role and changed her walking style. Ortega revealed even more of her physical and mannerism changes to Teen Vogue.
“I think my posture has improved immensely since working on that job. Because I always made sure I had a straight back. I didn’t move my hands or arms much if I didn’t have to," said Ortega. “At some point during the first couple weeks of shooting, I did a take where I did not blink at all. And Tim [Burton] said, I don’t want you to blink anymore. Weird mannerisms, we try to incorporate things like that.”
When collaborating with series creator Tim Burton to create a new version of Wednesday Addams. Ortega was game to try anything. ("We've never seen Wednesday as a teenage girl.") She shared that when it came to Wednesday's appearance, Tim was “peculiar and specific” about the look, striving for hair distinction from previous versions of Wednesday.
“We tried silver streaks in my hair, short, tiny braids, really long, thick braids. We just tried all different variations and at some point the hairdresser… he brought out a clip of fringe," said Ortega. The fringed bangs were on the right track for Wednesday's look, but it wasn’t perfect — until Ortega made a suggestion. “‘Hey, maybe just cut my actual hair.’”
Ortega's take on the iconic character is all-encompassing. She cut her hair, changed her posture, learned new skills, and even slowly started becoming Wednesday. “I think a big part of Wednesday’s color, some of it does play in filter. There was a little bit of makeup. But I spent so much time in Romania and it was winter, that it got to a point where they used to put makeup on my hands and things like that and they just… stopped," Ortega said with a laugh. "I lost all melanin!” Check out Ortega's full episode of Teen Vogue Character Study above.
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Who is in the cast of Wednesday Season 2?
The cast of Wednesday season 1 included Chicago star Catherine Zeta-Jones as Addams Family matriarch Morticia Addams, Narcos actor Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Wednesday's little brother Pugsley.
The rest of the cast is rounded out by main and supporting actors Fred Armisen (Uncle Fester), Riki Lindhome (Dr. Valerie Kinbott), Jamie McShane (Sheriff Galpin), Hunter Doohan (Tyler Galpin), Georgie Farmer (Ajax Petropolus), Moosa Mostafa (Eugene Otinger), Emma Myers (Enid Sinclair), Naomi J. Ogawa (Yoko Tanaka), Joy Sunday (Bianca Barclay), Percy Hynes White (Xavier Thorpe), Gwendoline Christie (Principal Weems), and Christina Ricci in a multilayered role as Marilyn Thornhill/Laurel Gates. (Learn more about the full Wednesday cast here!)
The season 1 finale was particularly shocking for Gwendoline Christie's character, Principal Weems (R.I.P.), and each of Hunter Doohan and Christina Ricci's dual characters. It seemed as though Ricci's Laurel had met her demise, with her villain storyline coming to an end after she is attacked by bees and dies. But… did Laurel really die?
While speaking to Entertainment Tonight in March 2023, Ricci hinted that she could possibly return for Wednesday season 2. “I don't think I'm allowed to say,” said Ricci when asked for confirmation of her involvement in the second season. “On my end, the door is open. She was so fun to play! It's always so fun to play a villain.” No official cast roster for Wednesday season 2 has been publicly shared yet, so we'll just have to wait and see. (Cross your fingers — and Thing's fingers!)
More recently, Ortega spilled some more details about what to expect from Wednesday season 2 in her cover story for Vanity Fair's 2024 Hollywood Issue, teasing that a lot of new characters will be joining the cast. “Reading scripts has been exciting, seeing all of the new characters that are coming in, the actor shared. "We’re definitely expanding on the supernatural world. Our show had all sorts of werewolves and vampires and da-ta-da. And I think we expand on that a little bit."
Wednesday Season 2 Adds Thandiwe Newton & Steve Buscemi
We now know that two of the characters joining Wednesday season 2 will be played by two very famous actors: Thandiwe Newton (formerly known as Thandie Newton) and Steve Buscemi. Variety was first to report news of both Newton's and Buscemi's casting on April 23 and April 16, 2024, respectively. The sad news is details about their characters are being kept under wraps — but watch this space.
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Is there a trailer for Wednesday season 2?
At the moment, there is no trailer for Wednesday season 2. Let's keep manifesting, shall we?
This post will continue to be updated as more news about Wednesday season 2 breaks.
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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