For many of us who were the right age in the ’90s, there has long been one true Wednesday Addams: tiny, expressionless Christina Ricci, delivering lines about serial killers with a certain flat flair. The idea of Netflix’s Wednesday, a whole show about the Addams family daughter, is appealing but also worrying: Will they get it right? Will Wednesday (now played by Jenna Ortega) still want to do murders, or will she have her pointy edges filed off for a new era?
What she will have, it turns out, is the company of an expert. Deadline reports that Ricci has signed on for a major role in Wednesday.
Only one thing is known about Ricci’s role in the show: It’s not an older version of Wednesday. Deadline notes that Ricci joined the show after Thora Birch left it, and her new role takes the place of Birch’s old role but isn’t exactly the same. (Birch was set to play Wednesday’s “dorm mother.”)
Ricci joins a cast that includes Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams; Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams; and Gwendoline Christie as the principal of Nevermore Academy. Netflix’s summary calls the show:
a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.
Wednesday hails from creators Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) and has Tim Burton on board as director and executive producer. According to Deadline, filming wraps at the end of the month, so it’ll be a while before we get our first glimpse of Wednesday—the new one and the old one. (Though in the meantime, you can always watch Ricci on Yellowjackets!)
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