Tim Burton and The Addams Family are a match made in heaven on a purely aesthetic level, but instead of mounting a straightforward reboot for his upcoming Netflix series, the Edward Scissorhands and Batman director has placed the focus on one character in particular, with the show going by the title Wednesday.
The project has now found its heroine in the form of Jenna Ortega, the 18 year-old rising star that’s no stranger to the world’s most popular streaming service having played a key role in season 2 of smash hit psychological thriller You, as well as appearing in the platform’s recent slasher sequel The Babysitter: Killer Queen and original comedy Yes Day.
Wednesday will be scripted by Smallville duo Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with Burton set to direct the entire run of episodes himself. In a twist on the standard Addams Family formula, the small screen Gothic fantasy will follow the lead as she attempts to master her emerging psychic abilities as a student at Nevermore Academy, before a killing spree sees her drawn into a supernatural murder mystery with direct ties to something that happened to her parents a quarter of a century previously.
It might be Burton’s first ever venture into the world of episodic television, but expectations are high for Wednesday after Netflix beat out the competition to secure the rights in an intense bidding war. A filmmaker with such a unique and distinctive visual style tackling a high school coming-of-age story that doubles as an eerie mystery thriller with horror elements is an exciting prospect, and now that the main role has been cast, the focus turns to who ends up landing the plum parts of Morticia, Gomez and the rest of the Addams clan.