Jenna Ortega Divulges ‘Wednesday 2’ Plot Change After Lead Cast is Fired
Wednesday blew the charts on Netflix when it debuted in November 2022. The Tim Burton show is a spin-off from the classic The Addams Family, and while the original characters are in the series, it mostly follows Wednesday Addams as the titualr character, played by the beloved Jenna Ortega.
Ortega has been dominating Hollywood; dubbed the unofficial scream queen, Ortega has actually starred in the Scream series as lead Tara Carpenter, X, YOU, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Insidious 2, Studio 666 and more. Soon, she will be seen on the silver screen in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as Lydia Deetz daughter.
In season two of Wednesday, which will begin filming next month in Ireland, it seems that we should forget everything we learned about the style and relationships within season one because there is a lot that is going to change.
After season one came out, there were reports that one of the lead characters, Xavier Thorpe (played by Percy Hynes White) was written out of the show following allegations that White intentionally over-served someone at a party. These allegations were made over X, and quickly made headlines, catching the attention of Netflix. The accuser has since withdrawn her statements, however, White will not be in the following season regardless.
As written by the Daily Mail, “Emmy-award nominee Percy Hynes White has been written out of the Netflix smash hit Wednesday, nine months after he was accused of assaulting a woman at a party in Toronto, industry insiders have told DailyMail.com exclusively.”
At the end of season one, we saw Xavier and Wednesday finally break through their hatred of one another as they exchanged phone numbers before heading off to break. Their palpable underlying chemistry throughout the series made it clear that this was likely going to be a slow-burn love interest for Wednesday for a long period of time, but with the removal of Percy from the cast, Ortega has spoken out on how the show is taking things in a very different direction for Wednesday’s love life.
“I think I want it to continue down an antihero stream rather than a typical hero,” Ortega told fans in her March 2023 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “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.”
Ortega is now a producer on the show, and has stated that things are about to get a lot darker and more evil in season two. Additionally, each episode is going to be meant to feel like a movie, carrying the same viral tone that episode four did in season one, Woe What a Night.
“Reading scripts has been exciting, seeing all of the new characters that are coming in,” Ortega said in her Vanity Fair’s 2024 cover story. “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.”
Besides intensifying the action and horror elements and removing any romantic subplot for Wednesday, her appearance also underwent adjustments to better reflect the heightened intensity of the second season.
“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. While the look worked for the character, Ortega, a true Wednesday at heart, had a better one; “’Hey, maybe just cut my actual hair.’”, reported Celebrating the Soaps.
We also know that in season two, there will be more original characters aside from Thing (Victor Dorobantu) Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Gomez Addams (Luis Guzman), Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen), and Pugsley Addams (Isaac Ordonez) — all of whom were introduced in season one. The character that will be joining the cast has not yet been announced. We are also expected to see favorites like Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) return.
Due to its late filming start, it is likely that season two will not drop on Netflix until 2025. This year, Netflix is promoting Bridgerton season 4 and Squid Games season 2 as two of their heavy hitters, leaving Wednesday and Stranger Things for 2025.
For now, we will all have to patiently wait to see what evil Wednesday must combat during the second chapter of her story at Nevermore Academy.
Are you looking forward to Wednesday, season 2? Do you like these proposed changes?
