Netflix‘s series about the deadpan Addams Family daughter almost didn’t happen. Tim Burton was seriously considering retiring after his live-action Dumbo experience, but everything turned around for the king of alluringly macabre subject matter with green lights for the Wednesday series and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie. Jenna Ortega is the connecting thread between these otherworldly projects, and Winona Ryder has credited Ortega for being the glue that made the Michael Keaton-starring sequel happen.
Whether a third Beetlejuice will happen is still a tantalizing mystery, and now, Ortega and Tim Burton are working to finish the second Wednesday season. By the time that return happens, more than three years will have passed since Wednesday professed to sharpen hatchets, not bury them. No pressure, right? Let’s get down to the worst business on what to expect:
Plot
First, a Wednesday-themed float surfaced in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, which means that a horrible second season is growing nearer.
Filming is also coming to a close after production moved from Romania to Ireland (with initial visuals available in the above video), and although the Hyde mystery is done and dusted, Wednesday isn’t done with the procedural slant of the first season. That hunch is bolstered by Ortega’s assurance that Little Storm Cloud “never really changes.” There will, however, be plenty of change found in the second season cast (found in the below section), and some initial mysteries do exist.
Case in point: Gwendoline Christie’s Nevermore Academy administrator looked deader than dead upon the first season’s end. However, Christie coyly pointed out to Digital Spy, “We haven’t seen her put in the ground, have we?” She added, “I feel like Larissa Weems would not really be prepared to entertain or be dominated by anything as commonplace as death.” (Some shapeshifting might be going on? Christie ain’t saying, but she is suggesting.) Also, Lady Gaga joined the series in an undisclosed role, and foreshadowing has occurred. This won’t be a large role, but Ortega has previously hinted that there might be “two monsters that understand each other.”
What else? Wednesday has been playing with dolls in her own special way (with a knife), but showrunner Al Gough has suggested that she will grow more comfortable with human contact and bonding. At home, Wednesday and Morticia’s daughter-mother relationship will receive the spotlight, which might distract from Gomez’s constant smattering of deadly nicknames, if only for a few moments. Hopefully, Gomez will add to that nickname collection, too.
Ortega also revealed that the second season will take cues from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death, and that Wednesday’s semi-jump scare during the school dance will turn into a full-fledged “thing now where Wednesday just kind of appears. She is a little bit of a jump scare herself.”
Cast
The unholy trio of Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Luis Guzman are due back as Wednesday, Morticia, and Gomez Addams. We will reportedly meet a new family member, who will hopefully (fingers crossed) be Cousin Itt. And Thing? This wouldn’t be a show without that helpful critter. Netflix has not, however, revealed whether we’ll see the only character who can make Wednesday genuinely smile (Uncle Fester), and word of his supposed spin off hasn’t entered full-fledged filming unless it’s being kept secret.
Whether or not Gwendoline Christie manages to reappear, the official new Nevermore Academy principal will be portrayed by Steve Buscemi.
An Enid comeback means that Emma Meyers will be return as Wednesday’s roomie, and in addition to Gaga in her undisclosed role, new cast members include Owen Painter, Noah Taylor, Evie Templeton, and Billie Piper (Naomi J. Ogawa and Jamie McShane are no longer regular cast members). This array of new characters will probably mean that Ortega’s hunch is right about Percy Hynes White’s dismissal as Xavier Thorpe following sexual misconduct allegations will barely be noticed despite what she called “a weird redirect.”
Release Date
Wednesday hasn’t revealed her precise 2025 return date, although you can bet that she’ll be unimpressed when it arrives. Halloween seasons seems increasingly likely.
Trailer
Since no trailer has surfaced yet, it’s a good thing that clever somebody lined up Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” with Wednesday’s dance:
