by Nancy Hernandez, Staff Writer
Netflix’s series Wednesday has become a great success over the last few months. The show follows the Addams Family’s oldest daughter during her time at Nevermore Academy, where she finds herself tangled in murder mysteries with unexpected twists. Wednesday received much praise and love from fans worldwide who enjoyed the characters’ personalities. The series also garnered over 340 million hours of views during its first week, surpassing the record previously held by Stranger Things.
On January 6th, Netflix revealed that Wednesday has been renewed for a second season. This unexpected announcement left fans over the moon to see more of Jenna Ortega’s take on Wednesday. She began as a Disney child actress and made her way into more thriller-filled genres until she found herself working with Tim Burton for Wednesday. Having been cast as the main character, Ortega gained over 29 million followers on Instagram since its premiere. Unlike the classic versions, Tim Burton’s take on Wednesday has a more Gen Z approach while also leaving in place the iconic traits of the Addams Family.
To get people’s thoughts on the series, we interviewed a couple of ITA students. “She made the character exactly how it should be: dark, intelligent, and sadistic all in one. I think she truly did a great job at everything in the show,” said MedSci junior Jaden Alvarez when asked about her thoughts on Jenna Ortega’s portrayal of Wednesday. Sadistic is the most fitting word to describe Wednesday’s personality and something Ortega demonstrated perfectly. Although Christina Ricci (former Wednesday) played Professor Thornhill, Ortega made sure that her version was different so as to not dishonor Ricci’s work.
Another student expressed her thoughts on the Season One ending. “I really liked the first season and all of the characters. The ending kind of shocked me because of who Hyde was.” One of the many things fans loved about the show was the unexpected twists and turns that went on from the beginning until the finale.
While the series mainly focused on the character Wednesday, other characters caught people’s attention, namely the villains and members of the Addams Family. Wednesday’s relationship with her family felt quite distant compared to the previous versions, but surprisingly she became close to a normie. “I want to know more about Tyler’s backstory of how it all came to be,” said Elena Viesca, a junior in the MedSci Academy. “We learned that the outcasts have special abilities; however, because we were only shown glimpses of their power; fans want to see it at their full potential.”
Elena also added, “I want to see more of Thing because although he didn’t speak, it provided a bit of comedy given how he’s only a hand.”
When asked about the expectations for Season Two, Sadahrie Mandujano, a junior in ITA’s Communications Academy, shared her thoughts. “I think there probably will be high expectations for the next season because of the amount of attention the first one received. People would probably be interested to see how they continue the show after the ending and how certain characters changed since the last season. With no official release date for the upcoming season, it’s up to the fans’ imagination to predict what Wednesday has up her sleeve.
As Wednesday said in the season finale: “I know the suspense is killing you.”