The Wednesday hype might seemingly be waning, but it’s worth noting that perhaps the Tim Burton series could just be experiencing a lull thanks to its strange release schedule.
With season two part one’s debut going from the top of the streamer’s charts to dropping 50%, according to What’s on Netflix, this might just be a sign that fans are eagerly awaiting to binge the season in full. One of our criticisms of the staggered summer and fall releases was that despite this season being the best yet and Jenna Ortega bodying the iconic role for a new generation, the sheer amount of loose threads in part one really affected the experience. There’s so much besides the Gaga of it all, whose identity on the show remains a mystery.
Wednesday‘s return on September 3 has a lot to answer for. There’s the state of Nevermore’s funding to worry about, as well as Morticia’s family matters, the benefit concert one unconscious prodigy needs to wake up for, the mysteriously combative music teacher played by Billie Piper, and a zombie on the loose while this season’s apparent OP Tyler/Hyde (Hunter Doohan) is seeking revenge. Then, of course, there are the new elements being introduced, such as the tease we got of Gwendoline Christie returning as Principal Weems to guide Wednesday out of her purgatorial era.
The amount of shock and awe seems intentional. The main threads of season two that have been downplayed so far include the ways that even the supernatural are susceptible to superiority complexes; we haven’t forgotten that the new principal pushes Outcast pride in insidious ways while the humans aim to extract their powers for themselves. We think these two throughlines are the key to the real rising threat, which might have something to do with Slurp the zombie’s history with Nevermore—and not Tyler the Hyde. We’ll see when part two drops next week on Netflix.