Jenna Ortega Leaving Netflix Wednesday Series?

While there is no official news of Jenna Ortega departing from her star role on Wednesday, Matt Belloni is a well-known news-breaker. It would be difficult to find a more well-informed Hollywood media reporter than Belloni, so his word carries weight when it comes to ‘the industry.’ 

While the first season of Wednesday was a smashing success for Netflix, becoming the second-most-watched show in the history of the streamer (second only to Squid Game), the star of the show, Jenna Ortega, has since publicly expressed her distaste with Wednesday’s writers. Ortega called the writing for the lead character “subpar.” 

According to Jenna (on an episode of the Dax Shepard podcast Armchair Expert), the viral dance scene in season one of the show was supposed to be a flash mob. However, Ortega took matters into her own hands and created the dance that became the topic of social media posts everywhere, especially TikTok.  

Jenna Ortega went on to talk about how she ad-libbed or rewrote many of her lines for Wednesday. She felt like everything the writers had Wednesday saying or doing made no sense for the essence of who the character was at heart. 

Jenna Ortega talked about how there was no way Wednesday would be caught up in a love triangle and mentioned one line in the script that she refused entirely. “There was a line about this dress she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh my god, I love it! Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No. There’s no way.’”

The clear discourse Jenna Ortega has described when discussing the inner workings of Wednesday is the main platform on which Matt Belloni based his prediction. Thanks to Wednesday, Ortega is one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities. She likely has plenty of high-caliber work coming her way. 

If production doesn’t find a better way to work with its lead actress, the third season of Wednesday may look very different from the first two. If Jenna Ortega does leave Wednesday, Netflix may choose to replace her (like they did with The Witcher) rather than end the show. 

Replacing Jenna Ortega on Wednesday would be a tall order. It would be like replacing Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things. It probably wouldn’t work. Matt Belloni thinks this is why Netflix has been working to pump out spinoffs of the show (like Fester). The streamer wants to capitalize on the magic of Wednesday while it’s still there. 

Regardless of the future, Jenna Ortega will return in the second season of Wednesday, which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. You can watch Season 1 on Netflix with a subscription to the channel.