Christina Ricci Has Joined The Cast Of Netflix Live-Action Series 'Wednesday'

Last year, we learned that Tim Burton will be directing a Netflix live-action series of an Addams Family spin-off with Wednesday as the protagonist. The project is titled Wednesday and is set to be a coming-of-age comedy with "everyone’s favorite maiden of the macabre graduate into a full-fledged leading lady."

Fans of the show will be delighted to learn that Christina Ricci will be playing a huge part in the Netflix series, as confirmed by Deadline. She originally starred as Wednesday Addams in the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed 1990s Addams Family feature franchise. It is unclear what her role in the series will be yet. Jenna Ortega (Scream) is, however, playing the lead role as Wednesday Addams.

Despite being the closest to the titular character, Ricci is confirmed to be playing a new character and not an older version of her character. She will be a series regular as well and is believed to have been brought in after Thora Birch’s exit from the show for personal reasons. Birch was set to play the role of Tamara Novak, Wednesday’s dorm mother and the only "Normie" on staff at Nevermore Academy with a focus on all things botanical. Ricci joined the stellar cast comprising of Catherine Zeta-Jones as matriarch Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams.

The series will have eight episodes and is set to be a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery. It will follow Wednesday’s years as a student at the peculiar Nevermore Academy as she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability and in the process, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town. She will also try to solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago while navigating her new and very tangled relationships with the strange and diverse student body. The series was developed by Al Gough and Miles Millar.

The series has already finished production as of February 2022 with the shoot taking place in Romania. We can expect it to release later this year. Ortega had previously shared her delight at being able to portray a teen Wednesday and told Entertainment Weekly, "We've never seen her as a teenage girl. You know, it's funny and sweet and almost charming to hear this eight-year-old's obsession with murder and blood and guts. As she gets older, that nasty attitude or [those] biting remarks, it's almost kind of hard to not make it sound like every other teenage girl. So, it's like, how do we establish this character and give her the same fire without letting her become something that she's not?" She also added, "I know she's well-loved and well-respected and I just don't want to mess her up."