Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images and Netflix
Earlier this year, shortly before the second season of Wednesday wrapped filming, Entertainment Weekly broke the news that Lady Gaga would be joining the show’s second season. The anticipation of seeing her in full Wednesday get-up has naturally excited fans. Their answers were seemingly met over the weekend, with social media abuzz with a circulating picture of Lady Gaga in Wednesday S2. Sadly, the image is an AI fake (albeit a very good one).
The picture seems to originate on a Netflix-inspired fan page on Facebook operated by GAMRUS Group (the company that runs brands like Dot Esports, Gamepur, and WeGotThisCovered). GAMRUS Group uses the page in question to drive traffic to its WGTC Netflix tag page. Under previous ownership, the website was known for spreading fake news and making sensationalist click-bait headlines. In January 2024, GAMRUS Group posted that it had made significant strides to improve the site as a trustworthy news source under its new ownership.
Their post went live on December 13th at 2:30 PM GMT and has amassed over 67,000 likes so far. An hour later, another page, Flix & Chill, shared the image acclaiming, “First Look at Lady Gaga in WEDNESDAY Season 2!” It has amassed over 72,000 likes. We also found the image circulating on Instagram and X.
The picture in question sees Lady Gaga looking directly at the camera in black attire with curly hair. It certainly looks like Wednesday, given the scenery (even mixed with a bit of Bridgerton), but the image is not real.
Shared photo of Lady Gaga in Wednesday S2
Netflix didn’t release any press releases for Wednesday season 2 at the tail end of last week, with the first actual still revealed by the streamer on December 4th, featuring Jenna Ortega as the titular character.
So what’s going on? Sadly, the picture in question is AI-generated. We used several online tools that detect AI artwork and photos with one tool, SightEngine, saying the image is 93% AI-generated, stating that it’s using a Stable Diffusion model to be created (see evidence below)
Of course, fake things circulating on social media aren’t exactly new. We’ve reported dozens of times about websites and social media accounts that purposely post inaccurate details about release dates. Still, the rise of AI images (which look as good as the one above) is going to increase in the months and years to come.
Netflix confirmed to us in an email this morning that the photo that’s been circulating “was not released by Netflix and is not from Wednesday S2.”
We contacted the operator of Netflix Updates yesterday, but they have yet to respond to a request for comment on why they’re sharing this fake image. The owner of Flix & Chill, operated by MEWS MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED and Manish Jalan, declined to comment but said it was fan-made although the description suggests otherwise.
Of course, we’ll have the first look at Lady Gaga on Wednesday, season 2, as soon as Netflix releases something official.