She’s creepy and she’s kooky, she’s altogether streaming on Netflix in a matter of months: she’s Wednesday, the sullen daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams, now played by Jenna Ortega.
A rising scream queen who had her biggest role yet in this year’s Scream sequel, Ortega has stunned us in projects like X and the second season of You, where she makes a compelling victim/final girl every time. Instead of witnessing morbid horrors, though, she’ll be responsible for ’em in Netflix’s upcoming Wednesday Addams standalone spin-off series. Wednesday is streaming on Netflix in “fall 2022″—keep your fingers ready for clicking in a few months time, then.
The TV series feels like a perfect opportunity for master of the macabre Tim Burton: rather than continuing to redress classic Disney characters in his trademark, twee black and white stripes, he’s working from Charles Addams’ iconic comic strip family, made even more beloved by a 1960s TV sitcom and series of 2000s live-action films.
Christina Ricci, so preternaturally creepy as the original films’ Wednesday, will thankfully return in some undisclosed role. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán play Wednesday’s loved-up parents Morticia and Gomez, who have no other choice but to ship her off to the creepy Nevermore Academy after she’s kicked out of “eight schools in five years”. In the trailer below, we get to see the delicious reason for her new appointment…
“The only person who gets to torture my brother is me”, she announces to a swimming pool full of bullies, releasing hungry piranhas into the waters as “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” blasts on the soundtrack. It’s a great moment to reintroduce Wednesday, who should find some like-minded buddies at Nevermore. The place seems stacked with intrigue, better fashion (headmistress Gwendoline Christie looks divine), and perhaps some supernatural secrets.
If Netflix misses the opportunity to release the first season of Wednesday on a hump day, they’ve made a serious mistake. And nobody does serious like Wednesday Addams: look at that perma-frowning mug.
