How Wednesday Season 2 Quietly Wrote Out Percy Hynes White’s Xavier After Misconduct Claims
Jaden Patel here with your weekly dose of awkward boarding school departures—this time courtesy of Nevermore Academy and Netflix’s hit series Wednesday. In a move that left fans raising an eyebrow, Season 2 skips over a key character’s fate without a funeral or farewell party. Yes, we’re talking about Xavier Thorpe, the moody artist played by Percy Hynes White.
The story goes like this: halfway through Season 1, Xavier was Wednesday Addams’s potential love interest, complete with brooding stares and occasional paint splatters. Wednesday went on to become Netflix’s most watched English-language series ever, clocking in at 252 million views globally in its first month (The Hollywood Reporter). Yet when Season 2 rolled around, Xavier had already packed his brushes and vanished.
So where did Xavier go? In Episode 1, new Nevermore principal Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi) informs students that Xavier has transferred to “Reichenbach Academy in Switzerland.” That felt a lot like telling your ex you found “greener grass” on another continent. Later, Wednesday receives a farewell gift from her erstwhile beau—a painting of a crow perched on a headstone. The accompanying note reads, “I tried texting but I guess you lost the phone I gave you. Consider this my goodbye gift… Don’t ask how I know or what it means, but it’s connected to you. Who is Wednesday Addams without a mystery to solve, right? Xavier.” Cue awkward silence and a side-eye from Wednesday.
Before you accuse Netflix of a lazy write-off, there’s context: in January 2023 a Twitter user publicly alleged that White sexually assaulted her at a party in Toronto and provided drugs and alcohol to underage girls (New York Post). White emphatically denied these claims in a June 2023 Instagram statement, calling them “false” and accusing accusers of a “campaign of misinformation.” He warned that such rumors “can create mistrust toward victims.”
By May 2024, Netflix quietly confirmed that White would not return for Season 2 but declined to specify if the allegations were the reason. In a Vanity Fair interview that September, Jenna Ortega described his exit as “a weird redirect,” adding that the show’s growing cast “will make it easy to forget” Xavier. Meanwhile, Season 3 is already locked in, so expect more unusual detours and deadpan humor.
One can’t help but wonder if Xavier’s Swiss calling card is truly the last we’ll see of him. Will Wednesday ever solve the mystery of his abrupt disappearance? And will she miss his brooding art critiques? Stay tuned—because in this series, ghosting a love interest is practically an Addams family tradition.
Tune in next time for more campus drama and questionable character exits. Humanity at its finest.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and The Hollywood Reporter, New York Post, Vanity Fair
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
