Netflix has one of the biggest television shows in the world with Wednesday, but the series is already running into a problem that has become increasingly difficult to ignore.Time.Wednesday debuted on Netflix in November 2022, introducing Jenna Ortega’s version of Wednesday Addams and turning Nevermore Academy into the center of another massive streaming franchise. Yet nearly four years later, fans have only received two seasons.Now, before Season 3 has even arrived, Wednesday and her classmates are already approaching the end of high school.Credit: NetflixOrtega confirmed that the upcoming season will feature the students as seniors, meaning the Nevermore era that helped establish the series could soon look very different.And considering how slowly Netflix has produced Wednesday, the timing creates a strange situation. The series still feels relatively young because only two seasons have aired, but its characters are already being pushed toward adulthood.Jenna Ortega Confirms a Major Change for Wednesday Season 3During an interview with Esquire, Ortega revealed that Wednesday and the other young characters will be high school seniors during Season 3.That naturally changes the types of problems the characters will face.Ortega explained that the upcoming story deals more heavily with family conflicts, adulthood, and questions about what the characters actually want to do with their lives. Wednesday and her classmates are reaching the point where they have to start thinking about what comes after school.In other words, Wednesday is already preparing to move beyond one of the basic foundations of the series.Nevermore Academy has been a huge part of Wednesday’s story since the beginning. The school introduced her to Enid Sinclair and the larger world of outcasts while giving the show a setting that separated it from previous versions of the Addams Family.Unfortunately, we’re seeing Nevermore Academy being cut and likely moved on from in future seasons because of Netflix’s slow production and inability to string together consistent season releases.Netflix Has Taken Years to Produce Three Seasons, So They Have To Cut Content We Would’ve Gotten OtherwiseThe problem isn’t necessarily that Wednesday is growing up. Characters have to evolve, and keeping the students permanently frozen at the same age wouldn’t make much sense either.The bigger issue is how little television Netflix has actually produced during that time.Season 1 premiered on November 23, 2022. Season 2 didn’t arrive until 2025, nearly three years after the first season. The lengthy gap was influenced by the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, along with other reported production issues.Season 3 is currently in production and is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2027.Related: Netflix Confirms Lead Character Change for ‘Wednesday’ Season 3, Storyline ReplacedThat means Wednesday could reach its third season roughly five years after the series originally premiered.Five years. Three seasons.For one of Netflix’s biggest original shows, that’s an extraordinary amount of time to produce what will likely amount to roughly a couple dozen episodes.And the problem becomes even more obvious when thinking about what happens next.Credit: NetflixCould Wednesday Actually Leave Nevermore Behind?Netflix has not announced that Season 3 will end Wednesday, and Ortega’s comments don’t mean the series itself is ending.They do, however, suggest the end of an era within the story.If Wednesday and her classmates are seniors, graduation becomes an obvious issue that the show eventually has to address. Netflix could certainly keep the series going after Nevermore.Wednesday could attend college. The characters could move into separate parts of their lives. The series could follow Wednesday into adulthood and expand beyond the school setting entirely.There are plenty of possibilities.But that’s a major creative transition to contemplate when viewers have only watched two seasons so far.The first season established Nevermore. The second continued that journey. Now, Season 3 is already putting Wednesday near the finish line of her high school years.It feels like the show has barely gotten started, yet the calendar says otherwise.Jenna Ortega Is Growing Up Alongside WednesdayThere’s another practical issue Netflix can’t avoid: its actors aren’t getting any younger while everyone waits years between seasons.Ortega was 20 years old while filming the first season of Wednesday. She is now 23 and will turn 24 in September 2026.That’s hardly unusual for an actor playing a teenager. Hollywood has cast adults as high school students for decades.But the production gaps could make things more complicated if Netflix wants Wednesday to remain centered on teenage characters for several additional seasons.Suppose Season 3 arrives in late 2027.If Netflix then follows a similar production timeline for Season 4, fans could potentially be looking at 2029 or even later before another season arrives.Ortega would be approaching her late 20s by that point.Again, that doesn’t prevent her from playing Wednesday Addams. The character can simply grow with her.But that’s exactly the point.Netflix’s production schedule may effectively force Wednesday to grow up faster in terms of seasons because so much real-world time passes between them.Netflix Has Faced This Problem BeforeIt’s difficult not to compare the situation to Stranger Things.Netflix’s blockbuster science-fiction series became one of the defining shows of the streaming era, but enormous gaps between later seasons became part of its story.That model might work for major event television, particularly when every new season becomes bigger and more complicated to produce.But there is a tradeoff.Traditional television once allowed viewers to spend 20 or more episodes with characters every year. Even shorter prestige television seasons often arrived on a fairly predictable schedule.Streaming has completely changed that equation.With Wednesday, viewers could spend approximately five real-world years waiting for just three seasons.That’s a significant portion of a young actor’s career. It’s also a long time for viewers who became invested in the characters when the series premiered.Netflix essentially has to choose between allowing the story to acknowledge that passage of time or asking increasingly older actors to continue portraying characters stuck in roughly the same period of their lives.Season 3 appears to be choosing the first option.Credit: NetflixSeason 3 Is Already Moving Toward AdulthoodOrtega’s comments make it clear that growing up won’t simply be something happening in the background.It will become part of the story.Wednesday and her classmates will confront what adulthood means, what their futures might look like, and how their relationships with their families change as they reach the end of their teenage years.That’s potentially fascinating territory for Wednesday Addams.The character has never exactly approached life like a typical teenager, so watching her contemplate adulthood could give Ortega plenty of interesting material.Season 3 also has major unfinished business from Season 2.Wednesday left with Uncle Fester to search for Enid after her best friend’s transformation into an Alpha werewolf raised questions about whether she could return to human form. The season also introduced additional family complications involving Aunt Ophelia Frump.So there is plenty of story left to tell.The concern isn’t whether Wednesday has enough material.It’s whether Netflix can tell it quickly enough.What Happens After Season 3?That’s the enormous question hanging over the series.A fourth season has not been guaranteed, and even if Netflix moves forward with one, the company’s recent timeline provides reason to wonder how long fans would have to wait.If Season 3 doesn’t arrive until late 2027 and another two-year gap follows, Wednesday could enter 2029 before Season 4.At that point, nearly seven years could have passed since the original premiere.For comparison, many older network television shows could produce seven complete seasons during that amount of time.Netflix’s model is obviously different, and Wednesday is a much larger production than a traditional network series. Still, there comes a point where lengthy waits can begin changing the very show Netflix is trying to make.That’s what makes Ortega’s Season 3 comments so interesting.Wednesday isn’t ending yet.But one version of Wednesday may be.The characters are seniors. Adulthood is approaching. Nevermore can no longer remain an endless high school setting without the series eventually explaining why everyone is still there.After only two released seasons, Netflix has somehow reached the point where Wednesday Addams already needs to start thinking about life after graduation.For a series that premiered in 2022 and may not deliver its third season until 2027, that says almost everything about the strange reality of modern streaming television.Wednesday may have plenty of life left.Netflix just needs to make the seasons fast enough for viewers—and its cast—to actually experience it.The post End of an Era: Jenna Ortega Confirms ‘Wednesday’ Cut Before Show Even Got Started appeared first on Inside the Magic.