Summary
-
Jenna Ortega has become a rising star in the horror genre with her breakout roles in
Scream
and
Wednesday
, establishing herself as a modern Hollywood Scream Queen. -
Ortega’s upcoming movies, such as
Beetlejuice 2
and
Scream 7
, may already be released by the time
Wednesday
season 2 premieres, adding to her already impressive resume. -
Alongside her horror roles, Ortega has also showcased her talent in other genres, including psychological thriller series
You
and the dramatic film
The Fallout
.
There’s still plenty of time before Wednesday season 2 arrives, but, thankfully, Jenna Ortega has plenty of other movie and TV show roles that will keep the anticipation for her Addams Family return high. While the actress had been in various movies and series for several years beforehand, Jenna Ortega’s breakout role was as Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s 2022 TV show Wednesday. Solidifying her as one of the greatest modern Hollywood Scream Queens, Ortega’s portrayal of The Addams Family’s gothic eldest daughter arrived the same year that she joined two other major horror movie franchises.
While Wednesday season 2’s release date has yet to be confirmed, the return of the Jenna Ortega-starring Netflix series is expected to arrive by late 2024. Since Wednesday season 2’s premiere is potentially more than a year away, Ortega’s anticipated upcoming movies Beetlejuice 2 and Scream 7 may have already been released, though her role in the latter is still unconfirmed. In the meantime, Jenna Ortega has starred in several other movies and TV shows similar to Wednesday that will satisfy until its return, including horror films, suspense and thriller series, and teen dramas.
7 Scream (2022)
Jenna Ortega broke into mainstream horror franchises with Scream (2022), the long-awaited reboot of Wes Craven’s iconic slasher franchise. Ortega stars in the R-rated horror film as Tara Carpenter, who is targeted in Woodsboro by the masked Ghostface killer. While Ortega spends a significant portion of the film in the hospital recovering from her wounds, her character Tara is central to the slasher story at hand as her best friends and older sister Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) fight to survive the latest Ghostface massacre. The box office hit Scream (2022) premiered several months before Wednesday season 1 in 2022, giving Ortega a great start and conclusion to the year.
6 Scream VI
While Ortega still played an important part in Scream (2022), her role was far more substantial in the sequel Scream 6, which premiered in March 2023. Fresh off the heels of Tim Burton’s Wednesday, Ortega’s Scream follow-up was another box office success and her performance in the slasher satire was praised by critics and audiences alike. Giving her character Tara significantly more depth and action-heavy screen-time, Jenna Ortega’s Scream 6 return saw her both in front of and behind the knife as she battled Ghostface at college in New York City.
While Scream 7 now has a new director on board, Paramount has yet to officially confirm whether Carpenter sister actresses Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega will be returning for the highly anticipated sequel. It’s expected that the Scream reboot leads will reprise their celebrated roles, which could give Ortega a big box office hit for the third year in a row since 2022. Additionally, with the actress’s popularity only growing through her other horror and drama roles, Ortega’s Tara Carpenter could see an even more sizable role in Scream 7’s story.
5 X
Premiering shortly after Scream (2022), Jenna Ortega also had a prominent role in Ti West’s 2022 slasher film X. Ortega starred in the 1979-set A24 horror movie as Lorraine Day, who joined Mia Goth’s Maxine and associates to produce an explicit film at a rural Texas farm. However, similar to many other situations that Jenna Ortega’s horror characters find themselves in, the young adults are soon targeted by the elderly farm owner Pearl as the slasher movie takes shocking twists and turns. Alongside Scream (2022) and Wednesday, Jenna Ortega’s casting in the critically acclaimed movie X gave the actress her own unofficial 2022 horror trilogy.
The A24 film is the first installment in Ti West’s X trilogy, which also consists of the 2022 prequel Pearl and the upcoming sequel MaXXXine. The sequel follows Mia Goth’s Maxine as she pursues an acting career after being the sole survivor of the farm massacre, indicating Ortega’s Lorraine will not appear. Still, it’s possible that she could return in a flashback to the night of the gruesome events depicted in X.
4 Studio 666
Wednesday, Scream, and X weren’t the only horror projects that Jenna Ortega was featured in during 2022, as the actress also scored a role in the Foo Fighters’ horror comedy Studio 666. Ortega was cast in 2022’s Studio 666 as Skye Willow, the drummer of a heavy metal band who is attacked by the group’s frontman in 1993. As brief as Jenna Ortega’s role in Studio 666 turns out to be, the young actress was brilliantly cast due to her growing notoriety as a Scream Queen. From the Scream franchise to a Foo Fighters-starring slasher, Jenna Ortega’s horror movie characters often themselves fighting back against brutal killers.
3 You
Before stepping into the Scream and Addams Family franchises, Jenna Ortega joined Netflix’s hit psychological thriller series You for its sophomore season in 2018. Ortega starred in You season 2 as Ellie Alves, the 15-year-old no-nonsense neighbor of secret serial killer Joe Goldberg. Surprisingly, Ortega’s Ellie survives You season 2’s ending, being one of the few characters to come that close to Joe and Love and still live to tell the tale. However, Ellie doesn’t return for You seasons 3 and 4, leaving her character’s ultimate fate a mystery. While it’s still possible that Jenna Ortega could return for You season 5’s series finale given her Netflix connection with Wednesday, it seems her character’s story is long over.
2 The Fallout
While Wednesday primarily leans into the horror, mystery, and supernatural elements of its story, it also qualifies as a teen drama. Ahead of her role in Wednesday, Jenna Ortega starred in the 2021 HBO Max drama movie The Fallout, in which she portrayed Vada Cavell, a teen who experiences emotional trauma following a school shooting. The film showcases Jenna Ortega’s dramatic acting skills as she explores extremely emotional subject matter, with her central performance being praised for its power and empathy through The Fallout‘s complex ending. Many of Ortega’s most notable roles involve horror, thrills, and comedy, but The Fallout stands out as an effective exhibition of her nuanced talents in different genres.
1 The Babysitter: Killer Queen
Before landing her role in Wednesday, Ortega was cast in Netflix’s 2020 teen slasher movie The Babysitter: Killer Queen. A sequel to the 2017 black comedy slasher film The Babysitter, the Netflix horror movie sees Jenna Ortega join Judah Lewis’ character Cole Johnson in a battle against a killer cult. The Babysitter: Killer Queen also stars Scream Queen Samara Weaving, who appeared in Scream 6’s iconic opening sequence. While the Netflix movie received mixed reviews, the film was an early example of Jenna Ortega’s success in the slasher horror subgenre, which also continued her highly fruitful collaborations with the streaming service that would culminate in her Wednesday casting.