Tamal Kundu
The filming of Netflix’s supernatural comedy-horror series ‘Wednesday’ is set to begin in October 2023 in Romania. Developed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar from the characters created by Charles Addams, ‘Wednesday’ follows the titular character (Jenna Ortega) as she starts attending Nevermore Academy, her parents’ alma mater and a private school with a student body almost exclusively made up of supernatural outcasts, and finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery. The coming-of-age tale also focuses on the connections Wednesday forms at the school, even though her cold, distant, and inherently rebellious personality often ends up being a hindrance. Horror legend Tim Burton served as the director on four out of eight episodes of the first season. ‘The Addams Family’ is one of the most recognizable multimedia franchises in the world, comprising comic books, live-action and animated films, TV shows, musicals, and video games.
Following the release of the first season, ‘Wednesday’ became the show with the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language production on Netflix, surpassing the previous record holder ‘Stranger Things’ season 4. The series was officially renewed for season 2 in January 2023.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gough remarked that the second season would concentrate more on Wednesday’s relationship with her friend and roommate, Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), and her mother, Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
“We wanna sort of explore and sort of complicate all of those relationships going forward,” Gough stated. “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 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? It’s like, she hugged. That was her big arc for the season, right? So it’s like now, we do that.”
The ‘Smallville’ co-creator continued, “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 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?” Asked whether the fans can look forward to a romance between Wednesday and Enid, Millar stated that while they were open to everything, the friendship between these characters was the key to their vision of the show.
Predominantly set in the American town of Jericho, Vermont, the inaugural season of ‘Wednesday’ was also shot in various locations of Romania, including Bucharest and Bușteni. Ortega, who is a producer in season 2, told during a conversation with Elle Fanning for Variety‘s ‘Actors on Actors’ that ‘Wednesday’ would favor the horror elements in season 2, moving away from depicting the love triangle involving her character. “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,” the actress said, adding, “We’re ditching any romantic love interest for Wednesday, which is really great.”
‘Wednesday’ is reportedly not one of the shows yet impacted by the writers’ strike. If it continues later this year, the strike is bound to affect the production. We can expect updates in the coming months if that happens, along with news on casting for the second season.
