Gomez and Morticia Addams’s demon spawn—sorry, daughter—is finally getting the spotlight she deserves. Wednesday Addams, the death-obsessed teen whose idea of a lazy summer Friday involves electrocuting her brother, is headed to Netflix later this year, with You actress Jenna Ortega in the lead role. Judging by the new teaser, Netflix is going all-in on the macabre delights of everyone’s favorite goth. That’s no surprise given that Tim Burton is attached to direct; based on his previous work, we have a good idea of the show’s grim-meets-kooky aesthetic.
Wednesday, billed by Netflix as “a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery,” will follow the Addams’s only daughter as she attends the boarding school Nevermore Academy, where she juggles her newfound psychic powers and a supernatural murder mystery connected to her own family. Ahead, everything we know about Wednesday’s solo treatment.
When will the show come out?
Wednesday premiered later than expected on November 23. (Yes, the date did fall on a Wednesday.)
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Who’s in the cast?
Apart from Ortega in the lead role, there was a stunning group of actors surrounding her.
- Catherine Zeta-Jones will appear throughout the series as Morticia, the Addams family matriarch and Wednesday’s mother.
- Victor Dorobantu will play Thing, the severed hand and servant seen in the teaser trailer.
- George Burcea will play Lurch, the towering family manservant.
- Isaac Ordonez will play Gomez and Morticia’s son, Pugsley.
- Luis Guzmán will guest star as Gomez, the Addams family patriarch and Wednesday’s father.
- Other actors with as-yet-unannounced roles include Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane, Emma Myers, Percy Hynes White, Moosa Mostafa, Thora Birch, Hunter Doohan, Riki Lindhome, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer, and Naomi Ogawa.
- Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the early ’90s films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, will also appear the role of Marilyn Thornhill, an original character and not from any older manifestation of the Addams Family story
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams.
What is Wednesday based on?
Like the films, TV series, and theatrical adaptations before it, Wednesday is based partly on the New Yorker cartoons first introduced by Charles Addams in 1938, further popularized in the 1960s by the sitcom adaptation The Addams Family. Based on the latter’s success, the family’s misadventures quickly became a franchise: A cartoon series arrived in the 1970s, followed by The Addams Family live-action movie in 1991, for which a sequel, Addams Family Values, landed in 1993. Both live-action and animated versions of the family continued the legacy, and then a 2010 Broadway musical, The Addams Family Musical, arrived to lackluster critical reception. Finally, two animated films were released in 2019 and 2021. This large canon serves as the backbone of Wednesday.
Can I see a trailer?
Netflix unveiled a teaser trailer in August, giving us our first look at Ortega as the dark, pigtailed icon. After being expelled from school (again), her parents enroll her in the eerie Nevermore Academy, where a new adventure awaits.
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In a new clip unveiled during Tudum, Wednesday finds Thing, the famous severed human hand, in her dormitory. She knows it was sent to watch over her by her parents, but she convinces it to do to her bidding instead.
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The first full trailer was shared in October 2022, at the show’s New York Comic Con panel, revealing Christina Ricci’s role in the show at Marilyn Thornhill, a member of Nevermore academy on the administrative side:
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Will there be more than one season?
No word yet from Netflix, but given the buzz around Wednesday’s launch, there’s a solid chance it’ll be a hit—and in that case, expect season 2 news forthcoming.
Have the actors noticed the fan response?
After Wednesday‘s release, fans were already clamoring for more episodes. it seemed like the show had something for everyone. But one of the most notable topics that kept coming up online was the chemistry between Wednesday and her roommate Enid, played by Emma Myers. Enid is the happy-go-lucky side of the pair, loving bright colors and cheerfulness in stark contrast to Wednesday’s macabre aesthetic. And yet, they work so well together.
A lot of people began campaigning for the pair to be more than friends, and the couple name “Wenclair” started trending on TikTok.
At a press event, Pride asked Ortega about the sapphic connotations of her and Myers relationship, and she responded, “In a perfect world, we would have been a thing.”
Myers added, “I always say, ‘And they were roommates!”’
The actress was referencing an old Vine that has become a meme about how queer relationships throughout history have been retold as strictly platonic. Myers said that even before the show came out, she and Ortega would joke about “and they were roommates” during filming, so they noticed the vibe, too.
“Jenna and I would say that all the time to each other. And that’s all that needs to be said — I think that gets the message across,” she told Elite Daily.
Ortega was also asked why she think Wednesday Addams has become a queer icon, she replied, “I think because she’s a badass. She’s cool, she’s got a nice sense of style, but she’s somebody who embraces her differences and isn’t out to please anybody. I feel like that’s a really, really powerful thing to see. I feel like people want to see powerful women with powerful women.”
This post will be updated.
Associate Editor
Lauren Puckett-Pope is an associate editor at ELLE, where she covers film, TV, books and fashion.
