A master of the gothic and the macabre, Tim Burton is bringing a brand new adaptation of the popular The Addams Family which will star Jenna Ortega in the lead role as Wednesday Addams. Titled Wednesday, the series is scheduled to premiere sometime in 2022.
This coming-of-age adaptation will focus on Wednesday’s years in her parents’ alma mater, Nevermore Academy as she still morbidly obsesses over death while being a part of several adventures.
Besides Ortega, Luiz Guzman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emma Myers, Gwendoline Christie and others will be a part of the cast. Christina Ricci, who played the moody and brooding Wednesday Addams in the original film, will reprise the role of older Wednesday.
While Ricci has praised her successor and called Ortega “incredible” in the show, the younger has revealed how she has been compared to the character her “whole life”.
“She’s someone I’ve been compared to my whole life,” revealed Ortega. She added, “just because of y humour and dry nature, so it just seemed fitting. I thought that would be a nice way to flex my muscles in a different way.”
She talked about Latina representation in media and television and how she strives to play relatable characters that can resonate with girls like her. She said, “A big part of the reason I signed on is because she’s technically a Latina character and that’s never been shown or represented.”
Ortega talked about how she has struggled “with some sort of feeling of representation or reliability in mainstream media and film and television” and found this perfect “opportunity” to finally “give that reliability to other girls like myself.”
Ortega has been a part of the industry for a long time before gaining traction as the young Jane in Jane the Virgin. She has starred in various projects including Yes Day, You, Scream 6 and more.