Editors Note: This article contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Wednesday.
Netflix’s latest spooky offering Wednesday is full of layered mysteries, wacky twists, and unexpected turns. As our protagonist, played by Jenna Ortega, comes to Nevermore Academy she unearths new secrets about her family and new school, while also rising up to the challenge of making new friends and confronting her own emotions. While navigating a whole new life there’s also her budding relationship with Tyler, who later turns out to be the monster going on a killing spree in the woods. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Hunter Doohan, who played the multi-faceted character, talks about his audition process and Tyler’s true intentions toward Wednesday.
Tyler is a "normie" who is the son of the town Sheriff, and through the series we see him struggling with the loss of his mother. We also realize that he’s supposedly a reformed bully thanks to his past with Xavier (Percy Hynes White). Doohan reveals that he found out about Tyler’s secret by the end of his audition process “right before my final chemistry read and network test with Tim [Burton] and everyone.” When the team told him Tyler had a dark secret, he “asked them if it was THE secret. They wouldn't reveal that but I had enough of a clue to at least try to show some colors of that in the final audition.” And once he was cast show creators Al Gough and Miles Millar had like “an hour and a half phone call with me where they ran through everything and told me the whole story.”
The chemistry between Tyler and Wednesday was obvious right from the start no matter how much she tried to stay away from him, he became his unlikely ally. Sadly, Doohan thinks Tyler was “always playing her.” However, he admits there was a certain admiration and respect that was overpowered by his hatred. “Maybe there's an attraction there and, he probably wouldn't admit it, but a respect for her, but he's filled with so much anger and hatred toward her and her family and all of Nevermore because of what happened to his mom,” he said.
He further elaborated on Tyler’s sorrows for the loss of his mother, saying, “She was a Hyde and she died because Nevermore doesn't accept them and won't teach them how to control their powers, so I think Tyler's filled with a lot of rage and that's how he justifies his murdering spree.” In the end, the actor says Tyler was fun to play “because I feel like, even without the monster, there's a lot of conflicting sides to him.”
Wednesday is streaming on Netflix now. You can check out the trailer below: