It seems turkey wasn’t the only thing folks were hungry for this Thanksgiving week as Netflix’s latest smash-hit series, Wednesday, has proven that Addams Family fanatics everywhere were famished for a new adaptation of the ooky, kooky clan. Thankfully, Tim Burton’s series has proven to satisfy that craving, with Jenna Ortega‘s pitch-perfect take on the eponymous gothic teen becoming an instant internet icon.
With the show only a few days old, however, it’s too early to say at this stage whether a second season could happen. But, if it does, then Ortega has some clear ideas about where she wants her character to go in the next batch of episodes. And it might not be what you would expect, based on conventional heroic narratives, although it’s definitely totally in keeping with Wednesday Addams.
As the 20-year-old actress told ET, she wants things to get “darker” in Wednesday season two and has no interest in the adolescent sleuth becoming a nicer person during her next semester at Nevermore Academy. As Ortega put it:
“I kind of want her to be darker. I want her to get more in the nitty-gritty of things and not play things so safe, because there are a lot of lines about her saving the school and doing whatever, but for me, her main drive with the monster is of a competitiveness. Kind of, ‘Man, how’s this guy doing this?’ I think I want it to continue down an antihero stream rather than a typical hero.”
This is yet another example of Ortega making clear that she and her on-screen alter ego are one and the same. Not only did she share her character’s hatred for the pilgrim costume she was forced to wear in one episode, she also dropped the bizarre revelation that she used to perform autopsies on dead animals as a kid. We’re not even sure where Ortega ends and Wednesday begins anymore.
Not everything about Wednesday is winning over audiences, of course, with some of the creative decisions earning a lot of backlash online, but overall it’s been a big success for Netflix. With any luck, then, the Addams will be snapping (their fingers) back to our screens before too long.