‘Wednesday’ becomes the second most streamed Netflix series in the UK - despite Jenna Ortega’s doubts

Creators of the Netflix series 'Wednesday' will no doubt be celebrating the news that the series is officially the second most watched series of all time on the platform in the United Kingdom. It surpasses Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story but has yet to knock the mighty Stranger Things: Season 4 from its lofty heights at the top.

But would it have had the same appeal if Jenna Ortega didn’t take up the role of Wednesday Addams? As it transpires, there was a time that the newly crowned scream queen was anything but interested in picking up the role, instead wishing to dedicate her efforts to the big screen instead of the small screen.

"I got the email, passed on it. I had done so much TV in my life. All I’ve ever wanted to do is film," she revealed to The Times in a recent interview. "You have to prove yourself. It’s only in the last three or four years that I’ve been able to start going up for film. I was scared that by signing on to another television show it could prevent me from doing other jobs I really wanted and cared about."

It took a meeting with executive producer Tim Burton to finally see Ortega relent and make a return to the small screen - something she was keen to avoid having appeared in the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle from 2016 to 2018. But even then, Ortega was still playing hard to get.

"The only reason I went back is because Tim is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well. But even then I said, ‘Ah, no - I think I’m OK,’ a couple [more] times."

It’s a role that turned Ortega into a household name, after cutting her teeth in independent features such as elevated horror films Scream 5 and X, both in 2022. It also became a role that the actress staunchly protected from some moments she didn’t think 'fit' with her character.

Speaking to The Armchair Expert in early March 2023, Ortega admitted: "I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on ‘Wednesday’. Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all."

"Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’"

Ortega continued, "There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things."

The success of Wednesday on the streaming platform has led Netflix to commission a second season, while Jenna Ortega can currently be seen in Scream 6, showing in cinemas now.