Jenna Ortega Says ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Will Feature a Slasher-Inspired Episode

Jenna Ortega, who plays the morbid, death-obsessed student in Wednesday, teased there will be more ghoulish occurrences in the supernatural high school series in a recent interview with Collider.

“Visually, I can say we have some of the most fun we’ve ever had,” Ortega told Collider. “It’s crazy to talk about one frame like this, but there is a frame of Pugsley rolling his eyes back with this contraption around his head — that’s all I can say — and it reminds me so much of Full Metal Jacket. It’s insane. So bizarre.”

Tim Burton brought his gothic charm to the first season, directing half of the teen thriller series. The second season follows Wednesday‘s journey as she unearths new mysteries and navigates relationships with family, friends, and old adversaries, according to a Tudum interview with showrunners and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Ortega, who starred in Burton’s 2024 Beetlejuice sequel and Scream VI, also said the series draws from the jumpscare genre.

“I feel like there are a lot of scenes and frames, and there’s a whole episode based off of slashers, and we make a lot of horror references,” Ortega said. “So, everything about it, I feel like we had a little bit more trust, and therefore, we felt like we could do bigger, more elaborate sequences, which is nice.”

In terms of Season Three, Ortega said the they have not received the “thumbs up,” but added writers have begun to brainstorm early ideas. “With a show like that, you kind of want to get ahead of the game,” Ortega said. “So, I think that they’re kind of messing around and throwing out ideas.”

Nevermore Academy members cast Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Joy Sunday, Moosa Mostafa, Georgie Farmer, and Victor Dorobantu, who plays Wednesday’s companion Thing, will make their return to the mythical school. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, who play Wednesday’s beloved parents, and Isaac Ordonez, who plays her brother Pugsley, will take series regular roles in Season Two. New series regulars include Steve Buscemi, Billie Piper, Evie Templeton, Owen Painter, and Noah Taylor. With Season Two filmed in Ireland and its return expected later this year, Ortega said she expects to play an ongoing role throughout the production process.

“We’re still in the edit,” Ortega said about Season Two. She added: “That’s the funny thing about these jobs is you’re done, you wrap, but you’re not really done. So, I’ll probably be working on it until the end.”

The series will also feature guest appearances from Thandiwe Newton, Joanna Lumley, Heather Matarazzo, and Haley Joel Osment, and Christopher Lloyd, who played Uncle Fester Addams in the 1991 film The Addams Family and the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. Fred Armisen, who played Fester in the first season, will also guest star in the teen horror series.

From Rolling Stone US.