Wednesday executive producer Steve Stark reveals why they’ve decided to change the location for the impending Season 2 production start.
Wednesday executive producer Steve Stark explained the reason behind their decision to relocate the production of Season 2 in Ireland.
Speaking with Deadline, Stark explained Wednesday Season 1’s “challenging” shoot in Romania was the key factor in their decision to change the filming location for the hit Netflix series’ next installment. “Romania was an amazing place to shoot creatively, but challenging in a lot of ways,” he said. According to Stark, by the time Season 1 was done filming, the creative team had already decided that they were going to move the Wednesday production out of the Balkan country. Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has officially ended, it was recently reported that Netflix is currently targeting an April 2024 production start.
As to why they’d chosen Ireland as its new filming location, Stark shared that it was an easy choice since he already has prior experience shooting in Ireland for another show. “London or Ireland were two choices,” he revealed. “The main reason for me was I shot 113 episodes of Vikings in Ireland. Love Ireland. We got an amazing deal at the same studio we shot Vikings in. Vikings is probably ending, so we moved back there.”
Wednesday is written and created by Smallville’s Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with Tim Burton serving as the director. Based on Charles Addams’ iconic Addams Family comic series, the coming-of-age comedy is being led by Scream’s Jenna Ortega, who has now also stepped into the role of executive producer for Season 2. For her leading performance as Wednesday Addams during the first installment, Ortega earned her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The young actor is also currently nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Wednesday Season 2 Will Ditch the Love Interests
Ortega previously teased what’s in store for Wednesday Season 2, assuring fans that the highly-anticipated next installment will get to explore more of the show’s horror side. “[They will] lean into the horror aspect of the show a little bit more,” Ortega said. “Because it is so lighthearted, and a show like this with vampires and werewolves and superpowers, you don’t want to take yourself too seriously.” In addition, she also expressed how glad she is that Wednesday won’t have any romantic interests in Season 2, after the titular heroine was involved in a love triangle last season.
Besides Ortega, Season 2 is expected to feature returning cast members Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams. At the moment, it remains unclear if Season 1 favorites like Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) and Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) will also appear in the next installment. While teasing Morticia’s new looks for Season 2, costume designer Colleen Atwood confirmed that fans will get to see a lot more of the Addams Family, as Season 2 brings Wednesday back home.
While waiting for Season 2, fans can still stream all eight episodes of Wednesday Season 1 on Netflix.
