Wednesday Season 2: Jenna Ortega wants the writers to increase the horror and ease off on the romance

Jenna Ortega is taking the world by storm after dazzling generations of Addams Family fans with Tim Burton’s Wednesday and going a second round with Ghostface for Scream VI. During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ortega confirmed the writers for Wednesday are busy penning the sophomore season of Netflix’s Gothic drama. Additionally, Ortega has some ideas about Wednesday Season 2 regarding the show’s approach to horror and romance.

“We just started the writers room. I think we want to up the horror aspect a little bit and then get Wednesday out of the romantic situation, let her be her own individual and fight her own crimes,” Ortega told a giddy Fallon and his audience.

For me, Wednesday is a 10/10 series. However, I welcome the opportunity for more horror in the upcoming season. The romance between Wednesday, Tyler Galpin, and Xavier Thorpe is critical to the first season. Still, the supernatural horror angle is the show’s most robust feature. Burton is a master at creating memorable and threatening creatures. Hopefully, Wednesday Season 2 will let him off the leash and tap into nightmares he’s been holding onto for years. After all, what’s The Addams Family without creepy crawlies, oozing bog monsters, and decaying relatives?

According to reports, Ortega is fearless in defying the writing team when she feels the dialogue isn’t true to her character. Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast, Ortega revealed parts of the script didn’t feel intrinsic to how Wednesday feels and reacts to the world around her. Without consulting the writers, Ortega would often alter the dialogue. 

“When I read the entire series, I realized, ‘Oh, this is for younger audiences,'” Ortega said. “When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn’t… I didn’t know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.”

When asked to elaborate on her changing Wednesday’s dialogue for specific scenes, Ortega said the following:

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on ‘Wednesday’. Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’ There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense, where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

While Ortega admits she can be a handful, she strikes me as an actress who gets shit done. If she wants more horror in Wednesday Season 2, I won’t put it past her to get it done.

Do you hope Wednesday Season 2 leans harder into horror? What do you think about Ortega changing Wednesday’s dialogue without talking to the writing team? Let us know in the comments section!