Jenna Ortega To Play Wednesday Addams In Netflix’s Live-Action Series

The Addams Family are cultural icons first introduced in 1938 and millennials/ Gen Z will remember the beloved 1991/1993 films Addams Family and Addams Family Values starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christopher Lloyd. Christina Ricci, then 10 years old, played the role of the young Wednesday Addams who is obsessed with death and she remains the actress most commonly associated with the character. Now a younger generation will be introduced to the macabre family through a live-action series on Netflix directed by Tim Burton with Mexican-Puerto Rican actress Jenna Ortega playing Wednesday. “New chapter. Hope I can do Wednesday Addams justice. *snaps twice*,” Ortega captioned a post on Instagram with her holding the script. The eight-episode series entitled Wednesday has no release date yet and no other cast members have been announced so far.

Ortega, 18, played young Jane in Jane the Virgin and her breakthrough starring role was on the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle playing Harley Diaz. She also voiced Princess Isabel, Disney’s first Latina princess, on the animated series Elena of Avalor. She recently starred as Katie in the Netflix comedy film Yes Day directed by Miguel Arteta which featured a multicultural Latinx family starring Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez. She also played Ellie Alves on the Netflix thriller series You.

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The coming-of-age comedy is written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar and is characterized as a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday’s years as a student at Nevermore Academy, according to a press release. She’ll attempt to master her emerging psychic ability, stop a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents more than two decades ago. In true young adult series form, the series will have her also deal with relationships and typical (as can be) teenage girl problems.

Photo: Netflix

This also marks the first project centered solely on Wednesday and Burton’s first live-action show and his television directing debut. The famously goth style of the Addams family is in line with Burton’s own dark and at times creepy style evident in films including The Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice.

In a press release it states that the series “will see everyone’s favorite maiden of the macabre graduate into a full fledged leading lady.” Wednesday is described as “the ultimate lone wolf. She marches to her own beat… and it’s likely a funeral dirge.”

We can’t wait to see Ortega play our favorite goth teenager and to revisit one of the most iconic characters of all time played by a Latina.