Season 2 of the hit Netflix Addams Family series Wednesday has been filming in Ireland since May, and yesterday it was revealed (through images of wrap gifts received by crew members) that production has wrapped. Now, the official Wednesday Addams X account has confirmed the end of production – and they shared the first image of star Jenna Ortega as Wednesday in the new season!
Wednesday comes to us from Millar Gough Ink, Tim Burton Productions, Toluca Pictures, and MGM Television, and is described as a comedic, supernaturally-infused coming-of-age series that follows the teenage girl’s years as a student at Nevermore Academy, where she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the town, and solve a mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new relationships at Nevermore. Snap snap.
Jenna Ortega plays the title character and beyond Wednesday, other members of the Addams Family include Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley, Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gomez and Morticia, and Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester. Uncle Fester has only appeared on one episode of Wednesday so far, but we recently heard that the character might be getting his own spin-off series. New additions to the cast for season 2 include Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski), Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie), Evie Templeton (Lord of Misrule), Owen Painter (Tiny Beautiful Things), Noah Taylor (Law & Order: Organized Crime), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Thandiwe Newton (Westworld), Frances O’Connor (The Missing), Haley Joel Osment (Tusk), Heather Matarazzo (Scream), and Joonas Suotamo (The Acolyte).
The cast of season 1 also included Christina Ricci as botanical sciences teacher Marilyn Thornhill; Riki Lindhome as Wednesday’s therapist Dr. Valerine Kinbot; Joy Sunday as Siren Nevermore student Bianca Barclay; Emma Myers as Wednesday’s sunny roommate Enid Sinclair; Hunter Doohan as townie Tyler Galpin; Moosa Mostafa as quirky Nevermore student Eugene Otinger; Georgie Farmer as awkward and shy Nevermore student Ajax Petropolus; Naomi J. Ogawa as vampire Nevermore student Yoko Tanaka; Percy Hynes White as supernaturally artistic Nevermore student Xavier Thorpe; Jamie McShane as Sheriff Donovan Galpin, Tyler’s father, who has a vendetta against Gomez; Gwendoline Christie as Larissa Weems, “the principal of Nevermore Academy who still has an axe to grind with her former classmate Morticia Addams”; Victor Dorobantu as Thing, the non-verbal disembodied hand; George Burcea as Lurch; Tommie Earl Jenkins as Mayor Walker; Iman Marson as Lucas Walker; William Houston as Joseph Crackstone; Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Deputy Santiago; Oliver Watson as Kent; Calum Ross as Rowan; and Johnna Dias Watson as Divina. Some of them are returning for Wednesday season 2, some are not.
Tim Burton directed half of season 2, which is the same thing he did for the first season. That means Burton was at the helm of four of the season’s eight episodes.
Are you looking forward to Wednesday season 2? Check out the image of Jenna Ortega, back in character, then let us know by leaving a comment below.
Before we dive too deep into this guide on how to acquire the Riemann SMG in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, it’s important to note that this fast-firing, early-game submachine gun is only available to those who purchase the Deluxe Edition DLC. It’s part of the “Journalist’s Stash” questline, which features…
Before we dive too deep into this guide on how to acquire the Riemann SMG in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, it’s important to note that this fast-firing, early-game submachine gun is only available to those who purchase the Deluxe Edition DLC. It’s part of the “Journalist’s Stash” questline, which features…
HBO’s planned Harry Potter TV series from Warner Bros. has long been in development for the past few years and the studio is aiming for a 2026 release. The new TV series adaptation will be transforming each of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels into a single season, meaning that the entire series could span seven seasons or more. The studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”
Recently, Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed the franchise’s villain Lord Voldemort, gave his approval of the suggestion that Cillian Murphy step in the role for the TV series. According to Deadline, as Fiennes appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, someone made the suggestion for Murphy to play Voldemort and Fiennes responded, “Cillian is a fantastic actor. That’s a wonderful suggestion. I would be all in favor of Cillian. Yeah.” Murphy would win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Oppenheimer and he’s currently working on a feature version of Peaky Blinders.
While the Warner Bros. film franchise was a smashing success and featured Fiennes with actors like Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, and Maggie Smith, as well as making careers for Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, the studio aims to utilize the full TV season length to adapt the books more in-depth. Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group, said, “There’s not a lot to talk about at this moment. We’ve got our fantastic writing staff in place and they are doing what they need to do. And casting calls have opened up in the U.K. and Ireland, so the process is moving along. It’s going quite well. It’s an unbelievable dream, honestly, and as somebody who is a huge fan of books, the opportunity to get to explore them in maybe a little bit more in-depth than you can in just a two-hour film, that’s the whole reason we’re on this journey.“
Plot: When a terrorist group led by the villainous Jacob Pearce attacks a high-profile embassy reception, with the French Minister of Defence as their target, protection officer Vincent finds himself working with street-smart MI6 operative Zara to save the day. But when events take an increasingly dark turn, Vincent and Zara soon realize that the plan extends far beyond just one politician. With suspicions that one of their colleagues in the security services is feeding information to Pearce, Vincent and Zara soon come to rely on each other more than either would have ever imagined. Increasingly isolated and with Pearce always one step ahead, can this unlikely pair stop Paris from falling to a man hell-bent on vengeance?
Review: I’m not sure who asked for it, but the Gerard Butler Has Fallen film series has become the Has Fallen cinematic universe. After three movies (Olympus, London, and Angel), the same fictional world where terrorists target global leaders is expanding to the small screen with a planned array of series focused on other protagonists doing their patriotic duty to protect democracy from the evils that men do. The first entry is the France-set Paris Has Fallen. Rather than focus on a single hero like Butler’s Mike Banning, Paris Has Fallen partners two different characters to take down the bad guy. While it does not tread any new ground that the movies covered, Paris Has Fallen has fun with its concept and showcases solid action with brutal kills. It also serves as a spotlight on Tewfik Jallab and Ritu Arya as solid contenders for future action-hero roles on the big screen.
While each film clocks in at about two hours, Paris Has Fallen is set over eight forty-five-minute episodes. The long-form storytelling gives the series more time to dig into the villains’ motivations while also deepening the protagonists’ character development. While Gerard Butler’s character certainly had time to develop over three movies, none of the other big-screen characters did. Here, we learn a lot about the two leads. Vincent Taleb (Tewfik Jallab) is the lead security for a high-ranking French minister (Nathan Willcocks). Vincent has a deep military background and has a close relationship with the current President of France (Emmanuelle Bercot). Vincent is protecting the minister at a party when it is besieged by terrorists led by Jacob Pearce (Sean Harris). Vincent runs into an undercover MI-6 agent, Zara (Ritu Arya), and the pair manage to foil Pearce’s plan, but only temporarily. The first episode opens with a massive action sequence and closes with a shocking twist that sets the table for the coming season.
Having only seen the first four episodes of Paris Has Fallen, it is easy to see how good Jallab and Arya are in their roles. Tewfik Jallab fluently switches between French and English through each episode as he interacts with different characters and showcases serious aptitude during the action sequences, which are heavy on hand-to-hand combat. Equally, Ritu Arya is stellar as she pulls out martial arts and impressive gunplay in each episode. Arya’s experience in the action movie Polite Society and a standout role on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy should have prepared me for how good she is here as a veteran agent. Arya also imbues Zara with a sense of humor and a personal side, which we get to see when she spends time with her girlfriend, Freja (Ana Ularu).
What really elevates Paris Has Fallen from being a clone of the movies or even similar action-oriented series like 24 is Sean Harris. The English actor has become a formidable presence on screen going back to the Red Riding trilogy in 2009 followed by turns in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, David Michod’s The King, and David Lowery’s The Green Knight along with his most recognizable role as the villain Solomon Lane in the Mission: Impossible sequels Rogue Nation and Fallout. Harris’ quiet intensity instantly turns Jacob Pearce into a frightening bad guy. I was hesitant when I saw the trailer for Paris Has Fallen, as I thought Harris would riff on his other villain roles. Still, he instead fully inhabits Jacob Pearce as a layered character with a tragic back story enhanced by mental instability. Right from the first episode, Harris is a terrifying antagonist who may be the best villain in the Has Fallen franchise.
Created and written by Howard Overman, who scripted all eight episodes, Paris Has Fallen does not try to reinvent the action genre. Overman has an extensive history writing television series, creating the shows Dirk Gently, Atlantis, Misfits, Future Man, and War of the Worlds. Most of his projects have been more humorous, an element that he tries to bring to this series whenever possible. The four episodes I have seen were directed by Oded Ruskin, who has much action experience in his career. The back half of the season was directed by Hans Herbots, who I expect keeps the momentum firmly in place in his four episodes. The whole series relies heavily on misdirects and plot twists as the characters try to track down Jacob Pearce while also uncovering the root of his motivation and how high up the chain of command the conspiracy goes. Series like this have a lot of red herrings, and Paris Has Fallen is not exempt from falling down rabbit holes of circular logic and contrivances to keep pushing it forward. Nevertheless, Overman, Herbots, and Ruskin are focused on letting the bullets and blood fly, which masks any holes in the narrative just enough to forgive the errors.
Paris Has Fallen mines so much familiar territory covered in the feature films as well as countless other action shows on the small screen, but it does it with three charismatic leads who seem to be having a blast kicking ass through the City of Lights. I enjoyed this series a lot more than I expected, which could be due to being underwhelmed by the Gerard Butler movies that inspired it. Paris Has Fallen does not raise the bar in any way and is sure to be full of cliches of the genre, but it does it with more action than other television shows and some creative fight sequences and kills. I appreciate that the writers and filmmakers expanded such a high concept to keep it engaging and entertaining for four times the length of the movies in the cinematic universe. A fun series worth binging on, Paris Has Fallen is much better than I gave it credit for based on the trailers. It gives us two good new action leads in Twefik Jallab and Ritu Arya.
Paris Has Fallen premieres on December 6th on Hulu.
For movie fans, December means warding off the Wet Bandits, being seduced by a leg lamp and, to some, defending Nakatomi Plaza from terrorists. It’s just in our nature to clutter the month with our favorite holiday movies, creating a sort of advent calendar of Christmas joy and even misery (that scene in Gremlins is dark!).
Now, The Guardian is getting into the holiday spirit with their own advent calendar, recruiting a stable of notable filmmakers and stars to give their picks, all designated for certain days. While not all are Christmas movies per-se, the directors did support their opinions. Let’s run through some of the calendar, shall we?
By and large, it has to be pointed out that most of the movies on this advent calendar did center around the holiday season. After all, who wouldn’t include Love Actually (day 3), a Home Alone (Leila Farzad – director of the next Bridget Jones flick – chose Lost in New York for day 17) or Miracle on 34th Street (fittingly on day 24). It’s also cool to see new seasonal favorite The Holdovers (day 13 from noted screenwriter Jack Thorne) and the incredible The Silent Partner (day 16 – chosen by Berberian Sound Studio director Peter Strickland) – which we here at JoBlo.com love – get shoutouts. Expectedly, John Waters went extreme with slasher classic Christmas Evil (day 6).
A few of those who went the non-traditional route for the advent calendar include Secrets and Lies director Mike Leigh, who opted for Woody Allen’s Radio Days, arguing it works remarkably well in December. Meanwhile, James Ivory for some reason went with Gone with the Wind, which admittedly does have a Christmas scene but is nowhere near being the annual holiday viewing that The Wizard of Oz is. Himesh Patel, star of Yesterday, went with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, noting, “when I think of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think of Christmas. The films were released during the festive period from 2001 to 2003 and became one of the most important cultural touchstones of my generation. Those Christmases held not just the usual festive joys, but the promise of the next chapter in this epic, game changing cinematic trilogy.”
As far as the essentials, you better believe I’ve got The Muppet Christmas Carol going towards the beginning of my advent calendar, with A Christmas Story on loop courtesy of TBS/TNT at the end and Ernest Saves Christmas for just about any day I need that nostalgic laugh. As for the more off-brand ones, I can’t help but watch Eyes Wide Shut every December, provided I remember the password…
We could argue which movies belong and which make no sense at all, but we’ll let you decide. So be sure to check out Guardian’s film advent calendar but also make sure you give us some of your own holiday essentials in the comments below, and check out our own X-Mas themed advent calender below:
Role-playing games tend to rank among the most emotionally-charged video games out there, with many franchises in the genre becoming popular largely based on their deeply-realized characters, heart-stopping soundtracks, and recurring themes that can invoke a wide range of emotions, such as a sense of nostalgia. It’s…
Role-playing games tend to rank among the most emotionally-charged video games out there, with many franchises in the genre becoming popular largely based on their deeply-realized characters, heart-stopping soundtracks, and recurring themes that can invoke a wide range of emotions, such as a sense of nostalgia. It’s…
Ubisoft has announced that XDefiant, its multiplatform free-to-play Call of Duty-like FPS, is shutting down in June despite the game’s executive producer saying that it wasn’t dying and was “doing well” in September.
Beyond a couple of photos, we haven’t been able to see David Corenswet in action as Superman, but James Gunn is confident that the actor will blow us away. While chatting with THR about the upcoming Creature Commandos series, Gunn was asked about the Superman movie and was full of praise for his leading man.
“Superman is an enormous bear of a movie. It’s completely different from [Creature Commandos] in every way, but it’s very much fantastic as well,” Gunn said. “Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, David Corenswet is going to freak everyone out with how great he is. He is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, and he can do everything. The man is incredible.”
Hopefully, we’ll get to see some footage soon. THR’s report mentions that Gunn is currently test-screening Superman, and some believe that we might see the first teaser trailer by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
Superman stars David Corenswet (Pearl) as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel) as Lois Lane. The cast also includes Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) as Guy Gardner, a charismatic and slightly obnoxious member of the Green Lantern Corps; Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class) as Mister Terrific; Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho; María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as The Engineer, a member of The Authority; Sara Sampaio (At Midnight) as Eve Teschmacher; Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) as Jimmy Olsen; Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Perry White; Neva Howell (Logan Lucky) as Martha Kent; Pruitt Taylor-Vince (The Walking Dead) as Jonathan Kent; and Nicholas Hoult (The Great) as Lex Luthor.
The members of the Daily Planet newsroom have also expanded for the movie, with Beck Bennet (Saturday Night Live) set to play Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover (The Suicide Squad) as Cat Grant, and newcomer Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe.
DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran has previously teased that Supermanwill not be an origin story and will focus on “Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. Superman represents truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.” Superman is slated to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.
As for Creature Commandos, the first two episodes of the animated series will debut on Max on December 5th. You can check out a glowing review from our own Steve Seigh right here.
