The Addams family will be arriving once more to our screen with a new dynamic in the upcoming TV series, “Wednesday”. Fortunately for the fans, Netflix realized that one can never truly get enough of the macabre family, and we are so excited for this one!
The series, which contains 8 episodes in its first season, follows Wednesday Addams as she is expelled from her high school over an incident with a classmate and sent to Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for the freaks. Alas, it is not long before she finds herself in the middle of a killing spree. On the side, Wednesday also tries to uncover the mystery involving her parents 25 years ago, all while trying to handle new friendships and romance.
Tim Burton will be producing and directing the series. He is most famous for his work in films like Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Alice in Wonderland (2010), among many others. Needless to say, he is no stranger to gothic fantasy.
Casting for this will include 20-year-old Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán as Morticia and Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugley, Wednesday’s younger brother. We will also see Fred Armisen, George Burcea and Gwendoline Christie.
If you noticed the names, the new take on the Addams stands apart due to the incorporation of the Latinx culture into our main characters. In an interview, Ortega stated proudly how she “cannot think of a Latina character that exists today that has the reach that someone like Wednesday Addams does”.
In the famous 1991 movie version, Wednesday’s father, Gomez, is the only one played by a Latino actor. Although there wasn’t any mention of the family’s roots in the original comics, the names point to a highly possible Latinx or Hispanic heritage, which would make Wednesday and her brother at least half-Latinos. Netflix’s adaptation shows snippets of Ortega showing her South-American Spanish accent and a mention of the ‘Dia de los Muertos’ celebration in the trailer, a holiday associated with the Latinx cultures.
Ortega, who has starred in bangers like Scream (2022) and You (2019), is no stranger to a good thriller, so her take on Wednesday will most likely provide us with some spooky visuals. We can already catch glimpses of the costume and makeup on the trailer, and they seem spot on. It remains to see how her performance will follow Christina Ricci’s in the 1991 success (who we will also be seeing in parts in this series!), but there’s high hopes from what we’ve seen from her previously.
Our favourite big sis will arrive to our screens on Wednesday, November 23.