Pugsley Addams Graduates To A Bigger Role In Wednesday Season 2
“I'm going to be doing this ‘til I'm like 30.”
It’s been a long summer vacation for the students of Nevermore Academy, the school for misfits at the center of Netflix’s Addams Family series Wednesday. Season 1 followed Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) and her friends in their freshman year, but that was back in 2022. It’s taken three years to assemble everyone for year two, and there’s a crop of new students, too.
This year, Wednesday is joined at school by her brother Pugsley, played by Isaac Ordonez. He was only 13 when he donned the iconic striped sweater in Season 1, but now he’s 16 and has grown enough to loom over his older sister.
“Pugsley sprouted 8 inches over one summer,” Ordonez tells Inverse. “This season, I remember they were putting all the actors together and everybody was seeing each other for the first time, and then Jenna looks at me, and she's just like, ‘Well, this is humiliating.’”
But Ordonez isn’t the only one who has grown. Pugsley is coming into his own, too, and has also developed mystical powers: in his case, he can control electricity, just like his Uncle Fester. Ordonez sat down with Inverse to discuss what fans have to look forward to in Season 2, how his character has changed, and where Pugsley fits in at a school full of outcasts.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Pugsley now wears the Nevermore uniform over his iconic sweater.
What do viewers have to look forward to from Pugsley now that he's a student at Nevermore?
You will see a lot of school interactions. He'll make some friends. He has powers now, as you've seen. He's going to utilize that, and he kind of gets some more light shone on him this season.
Does Pugsley have any scenes with Uncle Fester now that they share this bond of powers?
Actually, no, I don't think so. I think he has got more with Wednesday this season, but we got a lot more of the core family together, I will say.
That’s right, Joanna Lumley joins the cast this season as Grandmama. What was it like working with her?
Joanna's great. She's such a humble girl, and she's so wise and teaches me all these life lessons. I have a great aunt who's very old but very wise, and she just reminds me of her.
Wednesday often rescued Pugsley in Season 1, but in Season 2 he’s a helpful tool.
How has the relationship between Wednesday and Pugsley changed from Season 1?
I think since he has powers now, she’s like, “OK, I can use this as a tool for my investigation sometimes,” but for the sibling dynamic, she's Wednesday, she doesn't evolve, she cocoons, so I think in the sibling dynamic it’s somewhat similar. Puglsey’s just happy to be there with his sister, I'm guessing.
You clearly have the biggest change in appearance from Season 1 to Season 2. Is that something that's addressed, or is it just a side effect of how long it takes to make TV nowadays?
Both. I think they throw in a little line like, “Oh my God, he shot up a plant in the summer,” or something like that. They announce the elephant in the room, but it's one and done.
Would you be down for, just to pull a point of comparison, a Stranger Things-esque tenure for Wednesday?
I mean, considering the gap between Season 1 and 2, I think this might be happening for 10 years. Yeah, I'm going to be doing this ‘til I'm like 30.
Season 2 of Wednesday will contain more scenes with the full family, according to Ordonez.
What was your favorite day of filming?
I think it'd be a night shoot. They film from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and those were always fun. It was a really big scene that had a hundred background actors and then a lot of the cast, so everybody was together and you mix that with night when I'm most active and that was pretty fun. I was goofing off so much.
How has your life changed outside of Wednesday in between the seasons?
I do get recognized a little bit. I think literally two weeks ago, I got recognized at the mall. I think that it's changed, but now it's going to definitely [change more].
What are you most excited for fans to see in Season 2?
This season is bigger, more characters, more monsters, more action, more family, and I'm excited for it. I only saw bits in ADR, but it looked really good. I had to tell them to replay the clip. I wasn't paying attention to what I had to [do]. I was just watching.
