Wednesday star lands role in new "love triangle" dark comedy
Variety reports that the actor, who plays Bianca Barclay in the Addams Family series and appears in Dear White People, will star in limited series DTF. St Louis for HBO.
She's one of two new names, alongside Abbott Elementary's Chris Perfetti, joining already confirmed cast members Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, David Harbour, and Richard Jenkins. The duo will be playing characters Jodie and Tiger Tiger, respectively.
The official logline calls the show "A limited series about a love triangle between three adults experiencing middle-age malaise, that leads to one of them ending up dead."
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It was recently confirmed that the series will be seven episodes long, and is currently in pre-production. Details beyond that are being kept under wraps at the moment.
Meanwhile, Wednesday's second season wrapped up filming in December, and is set to welcome a bunch of new cast members, including Scoop's Billie Piper, Fool Me Once's Joanna Lumley, Boardwalk Empire's Steve Buscemi and Westworld's Thandiwe Newton.
There's also Scream's Heather Matarazzo, Star Wars' Joonas Suotamo, Kingdom Hearts' Haley Joel Osment, Law & Order's Noah Taylor, Return to Silent Hill's Evie Templeton, The Handmaid's Tale's Owen Painter, and actual Lady Gaga.
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Jenna Ortega is back not only as lead actor, but she's also a producer this time around, something she greatly enjoyed.
"It's been the best," she said. "I've never really done that on a TV show before and we had talked about it first season. And it's so nice being a part of these conversations, because I love what I do and I love my job, but I'm able to be a part of the background stuff.
"I get to decide, like, how blue somebody's gonna be, or where the brains go on the floor, what prosthetics look like," she quipped. "It's so exciting. It's so much fun, actually. I'm learning so much. It's so informative."
Wednesday streams on Netflix, with season 2 on the way.
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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
For Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, ‘Wednesday' proves ‘weird is beautiful'
Jenna Ortega has just finished a long day on set in London for an upcoming project when she gets on the phone to speak with me from a moving car — not an uncommon occurrence for an in-demand star. Despite the whirlwind nature of the last few hours, the gracious 22-year-old actor sounds genuinely invested when answering questions with a respectful straightforwardness. In addition to Ortega's multiple big-screen titles out this year, 'Wednesday' — the Tim Burton-helmed show that propelled her from rising talent to Hollywood 'it girl' — returns for the first part of its second season on Aug. 6 after a three-year pause. And while this latest chapter in the story of the Addams Family and their morbidly brilliant daughter Wednesday sees her grappling with newfound, unwanted fame after saving Nevermore, the school for outcasts, Ortega doesn't like to dwell on the pitfalls of celebrity, unlike her character. 'Oh, I don't really think about it too much. I used to, but I don't really see a point anymore. It is what it is,' Ortega says politely when I ask how she deals with the increased popularity the series has brought her. 'Maybe that was the writers' intention, to be slightly meta.' The first season of 'Wednesday' became Netflix's most-watched show when it was released in 2022 and soon inspired a viral social media trend around Ortega's dance moves to the Cramps' 'Goo Goo Muck.' Her character's wit, confidence and modern goth style made Ortega an instant hit with viewers. She captured Wednesday's essence with such biting precision that her performance now feels inextricable from the role. Since that breakthrough, the actor has consolidated her status as a brooding leading lady starring in the horror hit 'Scream VI,' diving deeper into Burton's universe with 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,' appearing in the fantastical dark comedy 'Death of a Unicorn' and joining the music-laced thriller 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' opposite pop star the Weeknd. 'Growing up, I actually played the really nerdy, awkward character. I was never pegged as the dark one,' Ortega explains. 'That's why it's kind of funny that it's sort of my MO now, because I was always being described in scripts as a mouse or like, really intelligent but lacked some sense of confidence.' While Ortega hopes that some of her credits on the horizon will change that narrative, she acknowledges that a 'dark' character like Wednesday Addams offers complexity that's exciting for an actor to play. 'It's weird that oftentimes when people see you as one thing, they only want to see you as that,' she says. 'And when you venture outside of it, it can be quite disengaging for people.' Also back for the wonderful weirdness of 'Wednesday' are Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, the veteran performers who play the heroine's parents Morticia and Gomez Addams. This season features their characters more prominently, much to their delight. 'Me and Luis were like, 'Can we do any more?'' says Zeta-Jones on a video call from Spain about their roles in the first season. The YA series catapulted fresh faces like Ortega and Emma Myers, who plays Wednesday's roommate Enid, to stardom, but Zeta-Jones and Guzmán have dozens of film and TV credits between them, bringing decades of experience to the show. (Zeta-Jones is also an Oscar winner for her supporting role in 2003's 'Chicago.') When she learned that series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar planned to look closer at the other members of the Addams clan, including Gomez and Morticia, Zeta-Jones was eager to flesh out her part, signing on for Season 2. 'I was thrilled because for such an iconic character, you don't really know a lot about Morticia,' adds Zeta-Jones in her distinct Welsh accent. 'They finely tuned her vulnerability, her emotion, her fraught dynamic with Wednesday, and then brought in Grandma Frump [Morticia's mother, played by Joanna Lumley].' Guzmán describes the new episodes as a continuation of the ethos of inclusion established in the first season, a quality that has helped the Addams Family endure across generations. 'Our show shows people that it's OK to be who you are no matter what,' he says during an interview inside a trailer at the Forum before taking the stage for Netflix's Tudum event in May. 'It's not about fitting in — it's just about living your life, and it's OK to be how you are. Weird might not be the best word, but in our case, weird is beautiful.' Guzmán, who often speaks about his character in the first person, is pleased that audiences will discover Gomez's nuances this season. 'You find out more about his fathering. I do have a whole segment with my son [Pugsley, played by Isaac Ordonez] this season,' he says. 'And you just see how I navigate my life as a father in all the different circumstances that we come across.' This larger dose of Gomez features a rendition of the Spanish-language romantic track 'Bésame Mucho,' a 1930s bolero written by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez for which countless versions exist, in a scene that allowed the Puerto Rican actor, whose storied career includes multiple collaborations with director Paul Thomas Anderson, to flex his passion for singing. 'They're just so excellent as the characters and so funny together. They bring such a great sense of humor,' Ortega says about her on-screen mom and dad, who share a passionate relationship like past iterations of the characters. 'And who doesn't want to see Gomez and Morticia all over each other? That's half the point of the series in general.' It's not the first time the actors have worked together, either. 'Wednesday' reunited Guzmán and Zeta-Jones for the first time in more than two decades after sharing the screen in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning crime drama 'Traffic.' 'We hadn't seen each other in all this time, and then we totally picked up where we left off,' says Zeta-Jones. 'I was pregnant with my son during 'Traffic,' and Luis used to take such good care of me, making sure I had my tea and my stool to put my feet up.' Guzmán said their reunion was 'incredibly rewarding,' calling her 'kind and precise in her work.' Ortega, who is well aware of her co-stars' careers and accolades, treasures the time she's spent with these seasoned artists — first in Romania, where the first season was shot, and more recently in Ireland for this return — particularly because it's a show that required them to create a familial bond while playing peculiar characters. 'They've had such extensive careers and have done all sorts of genres, so they're very malleable performers,' she says. 'And to be able to work with them on a show that is kind of a conglomerate of so many different ideas — it's incredibly beneficial and has just been such wonderful education for me.' The admiration is mutual. Zeta-Jones believes sometimes great success at a young age is bestowed on individuals who are not equipped to deal with it no matter how many mentors they have on their side. Ortega, she thinks, represents the antithesis and is effusive about her work. 'I can't think of anyone more deserving or more prepared for what has happened to her in such a short space of time, because she's the real deal,' says Zeta-Jones about Ortega. 'She's got her head screwed on right. And more importantly, she's unwavering in her strength as a young woman. We talked art, politics, a whole bunch of s— that has nothing to do with 'Wednesday.'' The two actors have already shot another project together, 'The Gallerist,' an upcoming thriller filmed in Paris that also stars Natalie Portman and was directed by Cathy Yan ('Birds of Prey') . 'It was wonderful to work with her not in the 'Wednesday' world,' adds Zeta-Jones. These days, Zeta-Jones, who says she wants to direct in the future, feels she has nothing left to prove in this industry. The actor established herself with films like 'The Mask of Zorro' and 'Entrapment,' leading to a successful Hollywood career by many measures. Now, every job she takes is out of pleasure. 'I am enjoying this bit of a renaissance, this new chapter,' she says. Her outlook wasn't always so peaceful, however. 'I remember literally having nightmares on that Friday of box office numbers,' recalls Zeta-Jones. 'It was really terrifying, and now everything's a bonus, so the pressure's off now.' Asked about any piece of knowledge she would have liked to have known when she was Ortega's age, the actress looked inward. 'The biggest one for me, just in general in my career, in my life, is that you can't please everybody,' says Zeta-Jones. 'And you can't be liked by everybody.' For his part, Guzmán says the key to professional longevity is humility. With a resume as eclectic and consistent as his, he must be on to something. 'Carlito's Way,' 'Boogie Nights' and 'Punch-Drunk Love' feature some of his most memorable parts. And for his role in Soderbergh's 1999 crime saga 'The Limey,' Guzmán received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting male. 'Grounded' and not blinded by her 'star power' is precisely how he thinks of Ortega. 'She carries herself like a seasoned veteran,' he adds. 'This business could make you think that you're the greatest thing alive. And you might be, but you're also bound to remember where you come from,' he says. 'Remember what steps you had to take in order to get to where you are at the moment. My philosophy when I work is I always want to be invited to the next party, and I've been invited to many parties.' For Ortega, who's been in front of the camera since she was 9 years old, the lesson she wishes she'd learned sooner was knowing how to assert her agency as an artist in an environment eager to diminish her. 'I wish I had felt more secure in my position or in myself,' says Ortega. 'I felt like I was always having to be somebody else or put on another mask or face, because it's hard getting jobs and there's so much competition. There's so much rejection, and I wasn't always what they were going for.' Now, with more power to be selective about her projects, Ortega no longer wants to be a 'workhorse,' and she aims to dictate more closely where her time and energy go. 'I had been recommended to change myself for other people, which I think, as a young girl — that could probably be really confusing,' Ortega adds. 'And I don't know what that does on the psyche, but it's something that I've learned now, more so in the recent years after all this stuff that I wish I had taken on much sooner.' Whatever self-possession Ortega thinks she may have lacked, Wednesday has it in spades. But does she hope that her performance, and the way she handles her professional life, could inspire young viewers? Perhaps even spark an interest in acting just like watching Dakota Fanning in 'Man on Fire' did for her at a young age? 'It's really hard for me to think about myself in that sense, but with a character like Wednesday, I do think she's a good role model for girls, considering her strength and courage and confidence in herself,' Ortega says. 'She doesn't underestimate her power and is always pushing herself to learn more. She's a curious individual.' Curiosity is a trait that Ortega and Wednesday share. Even as she juggles a challenging schedule, the actor, whom Zeta-Jones describes as 'well-read with an amazing knowledge of directors and movies of great historical importance,' still finds time to watch films and expand her artistic landscape. 'Sometimes it's hard when you're filming because too many stories can be a bit heavy on the mind,' Ortega says. 'I read less books, but I still always watch at least a movie on the weekend. I'll read plays because they're a bit easier to pick up and put down and finish, so it doesn't take from you too much and it's still involved in my craft and the history of it all.' Stardom born from diligent work does come with its dazzling perks. At Tudum, Ortega appeared on stage during Lady Gaga's performance as part of a lugubrious ensemble. The pop star has a cameo appearance in this season of 'Wednesday.' 'That was something that came up the night before,' says Ortega. 'I didn't have much time to think about it, but that seems like something you would be regretting for a very long time afterwards if you didn't take her up on it.' As she tries to balance spontaneity with strategy moving forward, Ortega, who doesn't much enjoy pondering the future, might lean more on Guzmán and Zeta-Jones for advice on what it takes to build a long-lasting, fulfilling career amid hurdles and triumphs. 'Maybe I've got to talk to them a bit more about that instead of making silly jokes sometimes,' Ortega says. 'I get very easily overwhelmed, and I've got to take things a day at a time before I start thinking too far in advance.'
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Yahoo
Netflix Announces Major Wednesday Update – And 1 Exciting Hint About It's Future
If you were one of the millions of fans who helped make Wednesday the most-watched English-language Netflix show of all time, there's some very good news about the future of the series. With season two of the award-winning reimagining of The Addams Family starring Jenna Ortega coming this August, there's now even more cause for celebration as Netflix has renewed for a third season. The streamer confirmed the news on its social media this week, sharing a post of Wednesday holding a spooky crystal ball with the number three on it, along with the tagline 'bad things come in threes'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wednesday Netflix (@wednesdaynetflix) The caption added: 'Season 2 awakens in two weeks. Season 3 is the next omen, already in motion, already inevitable.' And not only has Wednesday been confirmed for season three, but it looks like a spinoff series is in the early stages of discussions. As revealed in a new joint interview with star Jenna and director and executive producer Tim Burton in The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Alfred Gough said a secretive spinoff is 'something we're definitely noodling; there are other characters we can look at'. She would never leave you hanging. Wednesday has been officially renewed for Season 3. Season 2 awakens in two weeks. — Netflix (@netflix) July 23, 2025 Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria also hinted that 'there's a lot to explore in the Addams Family'. While further details about the future of Wednesday remain under wraps for now, showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar added in a statement (via Deadline): 'It's been a dark delight to watch Wednesday cast her spell over audiences across the globe – one deadpan quip at a time. We're beyond thrilled she'll be returning to stalk the halls of Nevermore in Season 3. 'This time, she'll unearth more of the school's sinister secrets – and descend even deeper into the Addams family crypt. Or, as Wednesday would say: 'Nothing brings a family together like a good exhumation'.' In a statement to Netflix's Tudum, Alfred did give one hint that we will be 'seeing more Addams Family members and learning more family secrets in Season 3'. The news comes after fans learned last year that Lady Gaga was reported to be in a guest role for season two. Other new additions to the season two cast include Billie Piper, Thandiwe Newton, Joanna Lumley and Steve Buscemi. Part one of season two is set to drop on 6 August, with part two arriving on 3 September. Related... Will There Be An Untamed Season 2? Here's Everything We Know So Far Lady Gaga Has Joined The Cast Of This Absolutely Massive Netflix Show Stranger Things Creator Sets The Record Straight On 1 Major Rumour Ahead Of Season 5
Forbes
23-07-2025
- Forbes
Netflix Renews Jenna Ortega's Hit Series ‘Wednesday' For Third Season
Jenna Ortega will return for a third season of "Wednesday." Jenna Ortega will be back for a third run as the leading character in Netflix's hit Addams Family-inspired series. The streaming giant announced it has renewed Wednesday for a third season - just ahead of the show's return in August. Wednesday, which first debuted on Netflix in November 2022, quickly became a global phenomenon. The series - which also stars stars prolific Puerto Rican film and TV actor Luis Guzmán and Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gomez and Morticia Addams - shattered records, becoming Netflix's most popular English language show of all time with over 252 million views in its first 91 days. It reached the number one spot in 90 countries and crossed the one billion hours viewed mark just three weeks after its release. "The undeniable impact of Wednesday resonated immediately with fans worldwide, driving it to the top of our charts as our most popular English language TV show, and sparking cultural trends," said Bela Bajaria, Netflix's Chief Content Officer. "We are so proud of Al Gough, Miles Millar, Tim Burton, Jenna Ortega, and the entire Wednesday cast and crew for everything they've accomplished." Season 1 stayed at the #1 spot of the Netflix Global Top 10 for six consecutive weeks after its release, still a record for an English TV show on the platform. Additionally, the show's first season broke the record for the most-viewed in a week for an English language TV series on Netflix twice in back-to-back weeks. (L to R) Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Jenna Ortega as ... More Wednesday Addams, Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams, Joonas Suotamo as Lurch, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams in a season 2 episode of "Wednesday." The appeal of the supernatural dramedy series continues to grow, with Season 2 becoming one of the most anticipated new Netflix titles of 2025 with more than 2.8 billion social impressions to date. Creators, writers, and showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar expressed their excitement about the renewal in Wednesday fashion: "It's been a dark delight to watch Wednesday cast her spell over audiences across the globe - one deadpan quip at a time. We're beyond thrilled she'll be returning to stalk the halls of Nevermore in Season 3. This time, she'll unearth more of the school's sinister secrets - and descend even deeper into the Addams family crypt. Or, as Wednesday would say: 'Nothing brings a family together like a good exhumation.'" Season 2 will arrive in two parts, with the first four episodes dropping on August 6, 2025, and the remaining four on September 3, 2025. Ortega's razor-sharp wit and deadpan charm as Wednesday Addams promises to continue building upon the upcoming season's darkly comedic, supernatural mayhem that made the show a hit as she sees the line between her school and family life not just blur - it gets "hacked to pieces," teased director and executive producer Tim Burton, hinting at even more Addams family drama on campus. The new season is packed with star power, including a guest appearance by Lady Gaga in Part 2. The music superstar will play Rosaline Rotwood, a legendary and enigmatic Nevermore teacher who crosses paths with Wednesday. The season will also introduce viewers to new characters as Wednesday navigates family, friends and old adversaries while tackling a new bone-chilling supernatural mystery. Details about Season 3's plot, casting and production timeline remain under wraps. But the early renewal signals Netflix's confidence in the franchise's continued success and cultural relevance.
