As a young actress, Christina Ricci wowed audiences with her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in 1991’s The Addams Family, and its 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. Now, more than three decades since her first stint in the franchise, Ricci will return to the fold in Netflix‘s upcoming Wednesday series. However, she won’t be reprising her signature role.
Via Deadline, Ricci is not only a series regular in Wednesday, she’s been secretly filming her scenes for months on the set in Romania. The report also indicates that she will not be portraying an older version of Wednesday. Instead, Ricci will play a new character, whose reveal is being saved as a surprise for fans. Netflix quickly confirmed the news with a Tweet from its official account.
Yes, it’s true — the magnificent Christina Ricci is joining the cast of the new Wednesday Addams series as an exciting new character *snap snap*
— Netflix (@netflix) March 21, 2022
Ricci has remained very busy since the early ’90s, with leading roles in The Ice Storm, The Opposite of Sex, Sleepy Hollow, Black Snake Moan, and Speed Racer. On television, Ricci has starred in Pan Am, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, and Z: The Beginning of Everything. She currently appears in Showtime’s breakout hit, Yellowjackets.
Jenna Ortega will portray Wednesday Addams in the new series, which follows her adventures as a high school student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday will also be drawn into a supernatural murder mystery that has a connection to her parents’ lives 25 years before the series begins. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán will appear as Wednesday’s parents, Morticia and Gomez Addams, respectively.
Riki Lindhome also stars in the series as Dr. Valerie Kinbott, with Jamie McShane as Sheriff Donovan Galpin, Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin, Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus, Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Otinger, Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair, Naomi J. Ogawa as Yoko Tanaka, Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay, Percy Hynes White as Xavier Thorpe, Gwendoline Christie as Larissa Weems, and Victor Dorobantu as Thing.
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar developed Wednesday for television based on the characters created by Charles Addams. Tim Burton is directing and executive producing the series. Netflix hasn’t set a date for the show, but filming will wrap at the end of March.