Wednesday, the hit Addams Family spin-off supernatural television series that stars Jenna Ortega in the titular role, has been renewed for a second season by Netflix. After speculation arose about whether the acclaimed horror comedy would continue at the streamee, Netflix confirmed in a brief video clip that the show will return for a sophomore run.
In an exclusive interview with Tudum.com, Wednesday’s creators/showrunners/executive producers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, confirmed the coming-of-age series will be returning for a follow-up season. They said:
“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.”
The show’s renewal at Netflix was uncertain over the past few weeks, as there were rumors it might move to Prime Video. The reports arose as Amazon acquired the series’ producer, MGM Television, and its content last year for $8.5 billion. However, Amazon had originally passed on Wednesday as an original show before it was acquired by Netflix.
The eight-episode first season of the goth mystery series debuted on the streamer on November 23. Netflix announced shortly thereafter that Wednesday set a new platform record for most hours viewed for an English language series in its first week with over 341 million hours viewed.
Since then, the show has grown to become the second biggest English language season of television on Netflix; it has garnered over 1.2 billion hours viewed within its first three weeks of streaming. It follows Stranger Things 4 and Squid Game as the third title to reach this milestone within its first 28 days.
More than 182 million households have watched the series since its debut. Wednesday also broke two other records: for the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language television show on Netflix in its first two weeks, as well has having six consecutive weeks with over 100 million hours viewed on the English TV List.
Ortega has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for her performance as Wednesday Addams in the series. The first season of the show, which has also been nominated Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, centers on Wednesday’s years as a student at Nevermore Academy.
Wednesday’s eponymous protagonist 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 the while, she’s forced to navigate her new and very tangled relationships at the school.
Along with Ortega, the cast of the show’s first season includes Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane, Percy Hynes White, Hunter Doohan, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Naomi J. Ogawa, Moosa Mostafa, Georgie Farmer and Riki Lindhome. Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the 1991 Addams Family film and its 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values, returns to the franchise as Marilyn Thornhill, one of the titular teen’s teachers and dorm mother at Nevermore.
Catherine Zeta-Jones stars in Wednesday as the eponymous character’s mother, Morticia Addams, alongside Luis Guzmán as her father, Gomez. Isaac Ordonez portrays Wednesday’s younger brother, Pugsley.
Tim Burton directed the initial season’s first four episodes and is also an executive producer on the series. Steve Stark of Toluca Pictures and Andrew Mittman of 1.21 Entertainment executive produce the show with Kevin Miserocchi of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman of Glickmania, Gail Berman, Tommy Harper and Kevin Lafferty.
Previously, Gough teased what may happen on Wednesday’s upcoming second season during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “We wanna sort of explore and sort of complicate all of those relationships going forward. The school was closed when they left, which gave us the most possibilities for season two, and I think that’s something that we’re excited to explore.
“For us, the show also is really about this female friendship, with Wednesday and Enid (Myers) really being at the center of that. The fact that they really connected with audiences, it has been really gratifying. So, we’re excited to explore now that Wednesday’s dipped her toe into the friendship pool, what’s that gonna look like?,” the showrunner continued.
“It’s like, she hugged. That was her big arc for the season, right? So it’s like now, we do that,” Gough also said.
“Then, the other thing that’s really interesting is to continue to explore the Wednesday-Morticia mother-daughter relationship as well, which now that Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) knows about the power, it has given her sort of an idea of how that’s going to go. How is their relationship going to evolve?,” the executive producer added.