Wednesday
It wasn’t just about what was announced in Tuesday’s Wednesday season 2 kickoff, it’s about what wasn’t. And that includes a specific actor who will not be returning for season 2, despite his big role in season 1. That would be Percy Hynes White’s Xavier Thorpe.
Xavier survived the events of the Wednesday season 1 finale, having been falsely accused of being the murderous monster, and ending up as the lone surviving member of the season’s Wednesday love triangle. So why isn’t he returning?
There has been no reason given by Netflix as to why White isn’t back for season 2. However, in the past year, there have been sexual misconduct allegations made against White on social media. This began with a now-deleted tweet, and White has strenuously denied the allegations and has called it a “campaign of misinformation.” “I can’t accept the portrayal of me as someone bigoted, or criminally negligent of people’s safety. These are the kind of baseless, harmful claims that can create mistrust toward victims,” White said. Again, there is no public evidence that this is why White is not returning, but it is the situation that came to mind for many fans when this was revealed. For what it’s worth, White appears to still be starring in the romance film Winter Spring Summer or Fall opposite Jenna Ortega, his Wednesday co-star.
Wednesday
There is another, perhaps more innocuous reason that White may not be returning, and that may be the desire for Wednesday to extract herself from last season’s love stories, something Jenna Ortega was not especially a fan of, given that it seemed counter to the nature of the character. That said, even if that was true, it wouldn’t mean Xavier couldn’t have another role in the story.
White is not the only regular cast member not returning. That also includes Jamie McShane, who played Tyler’s dad, the sheriff, now relegated to a guest star. But it would make sense he wouldn’t have as big of a role in the story after Tyler’s death. And there’s also Naomi J. Ogawa who played Yoko Tanaka, a vampire student without much of a prominent role in the story, despite how often she appeared. So likely no controversy with either of those.
As for White, it’s likely that his absence will be explained away in some fashion, like how he transferred after the traumatic events of the previous year or something like that, but I wouldn’t expect it to be more than a line of dialogue or two. White has yet to comment on this, and Netflix has not issued any sort of direct statement about this either, though perhaps that is still to come from one or both parties.
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