Wednesday Addams Comes To Town

Ortega, Burton & Ricci

atest press release from John Brady TD, issued on Wednesday, November 15th 2023…

Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady welcomed the announcement that the second season of the Tim Burton directed TV show Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega, and which is based on the character Wednesday Adams from the hit Addams Family movie franchise, will be filmed on location in Wicklow.

With 252 million viewers, the show is regarded as the most popular English language series on Netflix.

Offering his congratulations to all involved, he described the announcement as a huge boost for the film industry not just in Wicklow but Ireland as a whole.

Brady said: “The announcement that the next series, which will be the second season of the hit Netflix show Wednesday is to be filmed in Wicklow represents a huge boost to the Irish film industry.

With an estimated budget of over €200 million, which is comparative to that of a major Hollywood movie, we are talking about a massive TV series, which has outperformed the latest season of the hit show Stranger Things, which most people would recognise as a firm fan favourite.

The importance of the announcement to the Irish film industry cannot be overstated. Wicklow, through Ashford and Ardmore Film studios, has been synonymous with Film Ireland.

The addition of a major TV series such as Wednesday puts Wicklow back firmly front and centre on the international stage.

Directed by Tim Burton, and starring Jenna Ortega in the title role, along with Hollywood star Christina Ricci, Wednesday is a hugely performing show for streaming giant Netflix.

There will also be huge benefit to the county as a whole, with the addition of jobs directly associated with the filming of the show, long with ancillary benefits to local communities in terms of support services.

The announcement also comes on the back of the joint Enterprise Ireland and Wicklow County Council initiative, the launch of the Clermont Screen Hub, which is located at Wicklow County Campus in Rathnew, last month.

An artist impression of the Greystones Media Campus

Designed to boost job creation and support local businesses operating in the film and audio-visual industry, the Hub offers 10,000sq feet of work space for those involved in content creation and servicing the productions taking place in Wicklow.

It includes a conference centre, meeting rooms, collaborative work and social spaces, along with a podcast studio and training facilities.

Elsewhere, work commenced in January of this year on the Greystones Media Campus, which will be Ireland’s largest film and TV studio location, with 670,000sq feet of studio space sitting on 44 acres.

This €300million project sitting alongside the Rathnew initiative, and announcement on the relocation of the filming of Wednesday to Wicklow, firmly re-establishes the Garden County as the representing the epicentre of the Irish film industry.

Like everyone across Wicklow, I look forward with confidence to even more success in the Film industry for both Ashford and Ardmore studios.

“The future of the studio industry in Wicklow certainly looks very bright indeed.”