Netflix has been the reigning king (and queen) of the streaming wars, so it’s usually a shock to hear about an actor stepping down from a starring role in a series expected to be a massive hit.
Netflix has dominated the streaming market for quite some time now. When Disney+ was introduced, the streaming platform became Netflix’s number one competitor. We’ve seen Netflix lose Disney titles, and pretty soon Disney+’s growth rate will skyrocket to the point where they’ll be in direct competition with Netflix.
Disney+ has been a lifesaver for many of us during the pandemic. I’ve had to stay home more than usual, and it’s been great to be a Disney+ subscriber and watch both new and old content on the new streaming service. Disney+ has given us the opportunity to watch Broadway musicals with the original cast. Hamiltonand brought us cinematic features such as live action Mulan straight to our homes. The platform is constantly updating and adding content and has instantly become a major contender in the streaming services market.
In 2020, we shared an interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who sat down with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin to discuss the “new” streaming platform. When Sorkin asked Hastings how he thought Disney+ would do in its first year, Hastings thought, “Maybe 20,000,000.”
20,000,000 would be great. For reference, HBO Max released a streaming service that only has 4,000,000 viewers. But how did Disney+ fare? The site has gained over 60,000,000 subscribers and continues to grow in one year.
Hastings noted that it took Netflix 10 to 12 years to reach this milestone. At the same time, Netflix has always remained the leader in terms of subscriber size.
In recent years, Netflix’s once undisputed dominance in the world of streaming content has been challenged by the likes of HBO Max (now simply Max), Disney+, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Last year at this time, it was reported that the company had lost nearly a million subscribers and shareholders had nearly turned against CEO Ted Sarandos.
Netflix is now posting astronomically higher numbers, including adding nearly six million new subscribers and increasing free cash flow from about $13 million to a staggering $1.3 billion. And it’s all thanks to their original content that has become popular over the years, e.g. “Stranger Things”, “Squid Games”, “Love is Blind”, “Sex Education”, “Wednesday”, and much more.
According to What’s on Netflix, Wednesday It is the most watched series of all time, with 1,718,800,000 hours watched. The total view equivalent is 252,100,000 views. Previously, Stranger Things retained the title for the fourth season.
Wednesday is an American supernatural horror comedy television series based on the Charles Addams character Wednesday Addams.
Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hines White (who is axed from the second series following allegations), Emma Myers, Joy On Sunday Georgie Farmer, Naomi J. Ogawa, Christina Ricci and Musa Mostafa will appear in supporting roles.
Four of the eight episodes of the first season were directed by Tim Burton (The nightmare before christmas), who is also an executive producer. It revolves around Wednesday Addams as she tries to solve a murder mystery at her new school.
Burton had previously been approached to direct the 1991 film. The Addams Family and participated in the canceled stop-motion animated film The Addams Family movie. In October 2020, he was reported to be directing a television series, which was later ordered by Netflix. Ortega was created in part to reflect the character’s Hispanic heritage. Burton asked Ricci, who played the title character in the 1991 film and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values, to join the series in a supporting role. Filming took place in Romania from September 2021 to March 2022.
Addams was expelled from school Wednesday after she threw live piranhas into the school pool in retaliation for the boys’ water polo team bullying her brother Pugsley. Consequently, her parents Gomez and Morticia Addams enroll her in their high school alma mater Nevermore Academy, a private school for monstrous outcasts in the town of Jericho, Vermont. Wednesday’s cold, unfeeling nature and brash personality make it difficult for her to interact with her classmates and cause her to clash with the school’s principal, Larissa Weems. However, she discovers that she has inherited her mother’s psychic abilities, which allow her to solve a local murder mystery.
The series became so popular that it blew up Netflix with 341.23 million hours watched in the first week, not only earning Wednesday hit, but Jenna Ortega became a household name.
Netflix announced that the second season of the series Wednesday is a top priority for the streaming platform once the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes end. In fact, the streaming platform posted Wednesday is at the top of the list of priorities for writers who are now back at work, along with Stranger Things Season 5. WITH Stranger Things has already been confirmed to be its final season, many insiders have speculated that the Tim Burton-led show will be the next standard-bearer for the streaming platform, and it is reported that they have plans for multiple seasons.
Ortega will also star in Beetlejuice 2also directed by Tim Burton.
As many will remember, the original film focused on the Maitlands, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis), as they try to adjust to their afterlife. Making this task even more difficult is the Deets, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), Charles (Geoffrey Jones) and their daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder), and this is where Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) comes into the picture.
The ghost with Sam wreaked havoc on both families, ironically forcing them to learn to live (or not live?) together. Given the recent trend of releasing sequels to 80s movies (looking at you, Top Shot: Maverick (2022)), many wondered, what about Bug juice? The wheels are turning, albeit slowly, and gradually more information is being released to the public that shows that a sequel is indeed underway.
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This film’s sequel has been in development hell for literally decades, with original talk of it dating back to the early 2000s. However, Warner Bros’ CinemaCon promotional video featured a title card, confirming that the film is on the horizon. Tim Burton also stated that he would not have made the sequel without Michael Keaton, so he also signed on to the project. Catherine O’Hara returns too.
The script was reportedly rewritten in 2017, so it seems like it was always on the back burner, but fans are excited to see a sequel to the beloved film someday. It was also rumored and has since been confirmed that Netflix Wednesday star Jenna Ortega will join the cast as daughter Lydia, along with Winona Ryder, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and others we mentioned.
WITH Beetlejuice 2 And Wednesday Based on Ortega’s resume, she’s sure to become a ghost queen in no time.
However, it appears that Ortega initially turned down the role of Wednesday.
Related: Jenna Ortega ‘Banned’ from Returning as Netflix’s ‘Medium’
During a film’s casting, the casting director releases a list of all the roles they want to play. Talent agents and managers can then introduce their clients in hopes that they will be able to audition. On top of that, if casting or production has an actor in mind, they may contact the actor’s agent directly to offer him the role, or specifically ask him to audition.
When Wednesday brought to Jenna, she passed the audition.
As it turns out, “I got the email, I passed it on,” she recalled, according to the report. The allure of working with the legendary Tim Burton drew her back. Despite this, Ortega turned down the role several times, trying to choose television rather than film, a platform she had come to crave.”
So, it looks like director Tim Burton is the one to thank for Ortega’s addition to the cast, rather than her affinity for the character or the story.
Can you imagine any other actor playing the role of Wednesday other than Jenna Ortega?