EXCLUSIVE: This is the news Addams Family fans have been hoping for since the new Netflix series was first announced on Wednesday – Christina Ricci, the actress most closely associated with the title character, will have a major role in the live Play Tim Burton’s action show.
Ricci, who appeared as Wednesday Addams in the 1990s feature film series directed by Barry Sonenfeld, The Addams Family, is a Wednesday regular that will be directed by Jenna Ortega in the title role, Deadline has learned.
Details about Ricci’s role are being kept under wraps to protect the surprise for fans, but I can reveal that she’s playing a new character and not an older version of Wednesday.
I heard Ricci was brought into production after Thora Birch left. Ricci will play a new character similar to the one originally played by Birch who will replace him on the series. Ricci has been working quietly on Wednesdays for weeks; Filming on the MGM-produced series is scheduled to wrap up in Romania by the end of the month.
Written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar and directed by Burton, the coming-of-age comedy stars Ortega as Wednesday Addams during her years at Nevermore Academy. It is described as a detective, supernaturally imbued mystery.
Alongside Ortega, Ricci stars alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones as matriarch Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams.
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Ricci’s Wednesday appearance in the Addams Family films is so popular with fans of the franchise that they started a petition when the Netflix series was announced, demanding that the actress be cast on the show.
Burton executive is producing on Wednesday with Gough and Millar serving as showrunners. Also executive producing are Kayla Alpert, Steve Stark and Andrew Mittman for 1.21, Kevin Miserocchi, Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania and Gail Berman.
Ricci will next return for Season 2 of Showtime’s breakout hit Yellowjackets, in which she stars. Her recent work also includes Amazon’s Z: The Beginning of Everything, which she produced, and The Matrix: Resurrections. She is represented by ICM partners and Untitled Entertainment.