Wednesday
The only thing I’m surprised about this regarding this news is that Wednesday was not already renewed for season 3 a long time ago, but now, Netflix has officially announced that. The news comes via an interview at THR with Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega.
Wednesday season 2’s release date is imminent on August 6, the season being split into two parts of five episodes each, as Netflix is prone to do with its biggest releases these days, much to the annoyance of fans. It will have been almost three years since the release of Wednesday season 1, one of the longest gaps in an industry full of long gaps.
The news also comes with talk of a spin-off, though no details are given. If all of this seems a bit premature, it isn’t. Wednesday season 1 is the most-viewed season of an English-language show by individual views by a margin of a full 100 million, 252 million over the new second place, 142 million from this year’s Adolescence. It narrowly misses “hours viewed,” just behind Stranger Things season 4. It’s why a pre-air season 3 greenlight and a spin-off were almost inevitable, rather than any sort of surprise.
Wednesday
There are not exactly a lot of hints about the specifics of what’s coming in Wednesday season 3 in just two weeks, but we do have enough trailers to get a general sense of things. One important addition is the greater inclusion of the full Addams Family themselves, including Wednesday’s brother Pugsley (where the actor has grown comically in the last three years), now attending Nevermore Academy with her. This will annoy Wednesday, no doubt, but as you’ll recall, the series opened with her unleashing piranhas in a pool filled with guys bullying her brother, so she’s still protective.
The central question of Wednesday’s return is whether it can match season 1, both in terms of quality and viewership. Netflix seems willing to risk some level of audience drop-off with these month-long splits in order to retain viewers who might otherwise sign up, watch Wednesday, and cancel. At least they get two months out of them now, which seems to be the only reason this practice exists.
Still, that may not matter. Stranger Things season 4 was split and is one of the most-watched shows ever on the service. But have fans gotten fed up waiting for Wednesday, where it’s now out of the zeitgeist? Or has anticipation been building to the point where this will be even bigger this time around?
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.