3 Years for Only 8 Episodes? ‘Wednesday’ Creators Explain Why It Takes So Long
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar used to work way faster on a different show, but things might still be much more different with Wednesday’s upcoming season 3.
Three years of wait between two seasons have gone from a cringey creative decision to a new norm on modern TV, and Netflix’s Wednesday is one of the most infamous examples.
While some of the show’s fans can’t quite reconcile with how grown-up Pugsley is compared to the first season released back in 2022, others had to prepare beforehand by rewatching the first instalment’s episodes, with some more quitting the entire thing after getting tired of waiting.
All of this hit even harder when Wednesday’s season 3 was announced and immediately labeled as yet another instalment many won’t even be that excited about in three years.
However, the show’s creators, despite sharing fans’ concerns, have just offered a better perspective that does look like a solution.
‘Wednesday’ Creators Say They’re “Down the Road” For Season 3
Even though the series’ fans were sure the writers wouldn’t be touching a paper list for another year, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have just proved them wrong by announcing that the work on Wednesday’s season 3 has already started.
“We’re actually in the writers’ room for Season 3. So we’re down the road a bit in the writers’ room, but now we, of course, stop to launch Season 2”, Gough revealed in a recent interview with Collider ahead of Wednesday’s season 2 part 2 premiere in September.
Apart from that, both teased Tim Burton’s comeback as Wednesday’s part-time director who previously helmed four out of eight episodes for each of two seasons.
However, nothing about Burton’s involvement hasn’t yet been confirmed even to the writers.
“It just depends on his schedule. I think that’s always the thing. He loves to do it. He has such a rapport with the cast. We’ve had a five-year collaboration with him, which has been one of the highlights of our career. So it’s just great. We hope he’s free to come back”, Millar added.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar Compare Their Work on ‘Smallville’ to ‘Wednesday’ Extensive Production
It’s safe to say things used to be a lot easier for television just several years ago, especially when compared to how the industry is doing right now.
Before coming on board for Wednesday, Gough and Millar already teamed up for Marvel’s superhero TV series Smallville which wrapped back in 2011.
With each episode running from 40 to 60 minutes, Smallville had a yearly release of one season that had more than twenty episodes in total. It is crazy if you remember that Wednesday’s each season is only eight episodes long and is released once in three years now.
“Well, no one was more frustrated than us in terms of the three-year delay. I mean, it was like we had the writers' strike, and we moved countries, moved from Romania to Ireland. We had a lot of logistical issues to deal with”, Millar also explained, saying that it usually took nine months to film Smallville’s each season.
However, Wednesday is a much more sophisticated thing in terms of visual effects, so no one is talking about those nine months anymore.
“Smallville, we shot 22 episodes in nine months. Here, we’re shooting eight episodes in nine months and the level of visual effects and production is much higher. So, I mean, 18 months would be the bare minimum we can get the show back up just from production to air”, the showrunner revealed.
Wednesday’s season 2 volume 2 is now slated for a release on Netflix on September 3.
