Actress Jenna Ortega (Scream) received some major props recently for her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in the upcoming Netflix series Wednesday based on the character from The Addams Family. The upcoming series follows Wednesday during her time as a student at Nevermore Academy.
The approval came from none other than actress Christina Ricci, who played the role in the original 1991 film and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. Ricci was cast in Wednesday in an undisclosed role. Deadline reports her character is a new addition to The Addams Family universe and is similar to the one originally played by actress Thora Birch (Hocus Pocus), who left the production of Wednesday for personal reasons.
During a panel appearance at Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, Ricci said she had just finished her work on Wednesday, which was shot in Romania under the direction of Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Tim Burton (Frankenweenie).
“I just finished it two weeks ago, and it was great,” Ricci said. “It was great working with Tim, and Jenna is amazing. I think people are going to absolutely love her as Wednesday.”
The Addams Family originally started as a series of single-panel cartoons that ran in The New Yorker starting in 1938. Since then, it has been adapted into several other mediums, including the original 1964 TV series and a pair of animated films in 2019 and 2021.
Along with Ortega and Ricci, Wednesday will star Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams. Earlier this year, Ortega told Remezcla that her Wednesday will do something that past versions of the character really have not. “My Wednesday will smile,” Ortega said.