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When it comes to rattling off the reasons why Miles Millar, Al Gough & Tim Burton‘s Jenna Ortega (Wednesday Addams), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia Addams), Luis Guzmán (Gomez Addams), Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley)-starring Wednesday worked so well for us, the first five reasons are all “Jenna Ortega.” That’s why we’re glad to hear that it’s been pulling in massive streaming numbers from around the world, inching closer to a second season green light. And if you’re looking for a scene that the streaming series could pride itself on as representing what it’s all about, look no further than Wednesday’s “interpretive dance routine” during the Rave’N Dance (which you can check out below). Speaking with NME, Ortega explained how the dance routine came about. “I choreographed that myself! I’m not a dancer, and I’m sure that’s obvious. I’d gotten the song [The Cramps, “Goo Goo Muck'”] about a week before, and I just pulled from whatever I could,” she revealed. But it’s this last part that should probably be getting more attention than it is: “It’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID, so it was awful to film.”
So let’s roll things back again for a second because what Ortega casually put out there was that she was physically performing a routine during filming while in the beginning stages of COVID. And based on how Ortega describes it, this was definitely a lot more than just sniffles and chest cold. “Yeah, I woke up and – it’s weird, I never get sick, and when I do, it’s not very bad – I had the body aches. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result,” Ortega detailed. And even after going through all of that to capture that series-defining scene, Ortega is still critical of her performance: “I asked to redo it but we didn’t have time. I think I probably could have done it a bit better.” Series production company MGM confirmed to NME that “strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna [Ortega] from set.”
Wednesday Creators Millar & Gough Discuss Season 2 & Beyond
Millar & Gough shared some thoughts, concepts & ideas they have for “The Addams Family” spinoff for a second season (and beyond) with Variety should the order come down from the streamer- here are some of the highlights.
Would It Be Safe to Assume That Tyler (Hunter Doohan) Would Return? Gough: “Yeah. Absolutely. He’s out there. That’s what we wanted to convey.”
Millar & Gough Have Plans for Season 2… and Beyond: Millar: “For us, it’s always looking at the future, and when we sit down to create a show, it’s looking at multiple seasons, ideally. That’s never expected, but that’s the anticipation that, hopefully, the show is successful. So you always lay out at least three or four seasons’ worth of potential storylines for the characters. It can evolve and change. Often, you want to see which characters or cast pop and who you like to write for. So you want to keep it open and organic enough to change it and evolve, but we certainly have a pretty clear runway of what we want to do in future seasons.”
Don’t Expect Wednesday to Be Possessed by a “Smart Phone” Demon in Season 2… But Thing? Millar: “I think our idea is that she throws the phone out the window in the next beat. I just don’t think she ever got to use a phone. I think she’s maybe vaguely tempted or amused by it. But then she’s going to reject it.” / Gough: “Thing basically takes the phone. He’ll become a TikTok star in Season 2.”
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