Christina Ricci, the actress who starred in the legendary ’90s franchise The Addams Family on Wednesday, returns to the universe by starring in a mystery role on the Netflix series Wednesday, Variety has learned.
Tim Burton’s live-action series stars You and Jane the Virgin alumnus Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. Yellowjackets star Ricci won’t be playing an older version of the character for Wednesday, but further details about her character are being kept under wraps.
The eight-episode series is described as a detective, supernaturally imbued mystery that chronicles Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her nascent psychic abilities, thwart a monstrous rampage that has been terrorizing the town, and solve the supernatural mystery that implicated her parents 25 years ago – all while discovering her new and very… tangled relationships at Nevermore.
Ortega is leading the series, and the cast also includes Ricci, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Wednesday’s mother, Morticia Addams, and Luis Guzmán as her father, Gomez Addams. Thora Birch also appears on the show but had to drop out before filming was completed due to personal reasons.
“Wednesday” was created by Al Gough and Miles Millar and directed by Burton. Gough, Millar and Burton are executive producers alongside Andrew Mittman on 1.21 (The Addams Family, Alphas), Kevin Miserocchi (Tee and Charles Addams Foundation), Kayla Alpert (Code Black, Up All Night) and Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania (“RESPECT,” “Addams Family 2”) and Gail Berman (“The Addams Family,” “Alphas”).
The series comes from Netflix and MGM/UA.
First created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938, The Addams Family has seen numerous iterations on screen. The most notable version came in the 1990s with two live-action films, The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, starring Ricci, Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston and Christopher Lloyd.
Deadline first reported the news that Ricci had joined the show.
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