The second season of Tim Burton's The Addams Family spin-off, Wednesday, has added a major new cast member, with Westworld alum Thandiwe Newton joining the already very impressive ensemble.
The news was first reported by Variety, but the trade doesn't have any details on Newton's character. We learned last week that Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo) will also appear in an undisclosed role.
Plot details are still under wraps, but star Jenna Ortega did give fans some idea of what to expect during a 2023 interview with Variety, revealing that season 2 is going to go darker and drop "any romantic love interest."
"It’s still coming together, but we’ve decided we want to lean into the horror more. We’re ditching any romantic love interest, which is really great. We’re going to get bolder, more dark."
Newton has numerous film and TV credits to her name, including The Slap, Big Mouth, Human Resources, and Rogue. On the big screen, she's appeared in the likes of Interview With the Vampire, Crash, Beloved, The Pursuit of Happyness, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and W. She received three Emmy nominations for best supporting actress in a drama for her role as fan-favorite "Host" Maeve in HBO's Westworld.
Wednesday also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, Luis Guzmán as Gomez, Isaac Ordonez as Pugsly, and Thing... as Thing.
The first season proved to be a massive hit for Netflix, breaking the record for most hours viewed in a single week… twice. In the first week, it raked in 341.23 million hours viewed; in its second, 411.29 million hours viewed.
The coming-of-age comedy series, which has Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville, Into the Badlands) on board as showrunners, is said to be "a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore."
Burton made his TV directing debut with the show, and also executive produced alongside Jonathan Glickman, Andrew Mittman, Kayla Alpert, Gail Berman, Steve Stark, and Kevin Miserocchi.
“We can’t wait to dive headfirst into another season and explore the kooky, spooky world of Nevermore,” Millar and Gough told Tudum in January 2023. “We just need to make sure Wednesday hasn’t emptied the pool first.”
A premiere date for the second season has yet to be announced.