Jenna Ortega spent two seasons making Wednesday Addams the most recognizable teenager on television.
Now Netflix is quietly building a second goth-adjacent franchise, and the overlap has fans refreshing their feeds every few hours.
The streaming giant just dropped the first full trailer for its Addams-adjacent spinoff project, and the internet has already picked a side.
Within an hour of the trailer going live, "Wednesday" and the new show's lead were both trending in the US, with clips stitched side by side on TikTok.
Some viewers called the new lead a carbon copy.
Others argued she brings a looser, funnier energy that Wednesday has never had.
Ortega has not commented publicly, which is very on brand.
She has spent the past year distancing herself from the role that made her famous, telling interviewers she wants to move toward film and away from the deadpan one-liners.
Her schedule backs that up: a thriller, a reboot, and a rumored A24 project all sit between her and another season of the show.
The timing is awkward for Netflix either way.
Wednesday remains one of its biggest original hits, and the company clearly wants that audience to stick around between seasons.
Launching a lookalike show risks cannibalizing the very fanbase it spent years cultivating.
The new series reportedly courted two actors who read for Wednesday before Ortega landed it, which fans have taken as a deliberate wink.
Neither Netflix nor the producers have confirmed that detail, but it has already been screenshotted into a dozen explainer threads.
Ortega skipped this year's biggest awards show, citing a filming conflict, and her absence gave the new lead a clear runway in the fashion press.
One viral gown later, and the narrative shifted from "copycat" to "successor." None of this means Ortega is losing anything.
She built the template, and the industry is simply copying it, which is what Hollywood does with every successful formula.
The real question is whether she wants the crown back at all.
She can return to Wednesday whenever she chooses, and every imitator only makes the original look more essential.
Final Thoughts
If she stays away too long, though, Netflix may decide it no longer needs her.