Jenna Ortega has spent her whole career bouncing from one TV set to the next — and once Wednesday wraps, she says the small screen can wait.
By The Insider — CelebnMusic247
Most stars announce a break when the work dries up. Jenna Ortega is doing the opposite — naming her exit while she is still the face of one of the biggest shows on streaming. Per Page Six, Ortega said on Josh Horowitz‘s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, released Thursday, that she expects to step away from television once “Wednesday” comes to an end.
“I actually haven’t had a lot of franchise conversations. I haven’t,” Ortega shared, per Page Six. “But what I’m meant to do will come and find me,” she continued. “I think after ‘Wednesday,’ I’ll probably be off the TV for a while.”
Her reasoning was refreshingly un-starry. Ortega, now 24, noted that she has had “many years doing that,” per Page Six. “I was bouncing from show to show as a kid, this to this, and I want to leave time for new things,” she explained. It is less a retirement speech than a scheduling philosophy: the former child star who grew up on sets from “Jane the Virgin” and “Stuck in the Middle” to “You” is choosing space over momentum.
Fans still have a full season to enjoy before any break begins. The new season is set to drop in 2027, per Page Six, with Ortega returning as Wednesday Addams opposite Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams on the Tim Burton-directed series. Netflix announced that production on Season 3 began in February, revealing that Ortega’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” co-star Winona Ryder was joining the show alongside Eva Green, and the streamer announced in September that production on the third season had concluded, per Page Six.
The show she is pausing after is no small credit. “Wednesday” has been a huge hit for Netflix since its 2022 premiere, winning four Emmys to date — plus a nomination for Ortega herself — and its second season aired in 2025, per Page Six.
Jenna Ortega’s Road to a TV Break
Here is the context that makes this more than a podcast soundbite: Ortega has walked away from a sure thing before, and on principle. Per Page Six, she bowed out of the “Scream” franchise after starring in 2022’s “Scream” and 2023’s “Scream VI,” and in a 2025 interview with the Cut she said she exited after her on-screen sister, Melissa Barrera, was fired, and because the directors she had worked with were not returning. She also revealed earlier this year that she almost quit acting altogether before landing her role on “You.” A TV break, in that light, is not drift — it is the same instinct, applied earlier and calmer.
The 247 Take — Ortega is not running from “Wednesday”; she is refusing to let one iconic role schedule the rest of her twenties. That kind of no, said this early, is exactly how a long career gets built.
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Sources: Page Six
