‘Wednesday’: See Catherine Zeta-Jones & Luis Guzmán as Morticia & Gomez Addams (PHOTOS)
It’s almost hard to believe there hasn’t been a Tim Burton Addams Family until now, but Wednesday arrives this fall on Netflix. The series released the first image from the highly anticipated reimagining on Tuesday, August 16, debuting Catherine Zeta-Jones‘ Morticia Addams, Luis Guzmán‘s Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez‘s Pugsley Addams. They join star Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, whose iconic look was unveiled in a June teaser trailer (below). The photos make it clear: this cast understood the assignment. (Truly, Addams Family projects never miss with casting. Name one poorly cast one. Do it! You can’t.)
Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough brought the macabre series to life for the streamer and recruited Burton to bring his signature directorial flare to the project. Their live-action Wednesday aims to look more like Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons from the 1930s than anything else. “[Burton] wanted the silhouette to look more like the Charles Addams cartoons, which is Gomez shorter than Morticia, versus the kind of suave Raul Julia version in the movies,” Gough told Vanity Fair.
“He’s also incredibly debonair and romantic, and I think he has all those classic ingredients of the Gomez that we’ve seen come before, but he brings something also very different,” Millar added of Guzmán’s Gomez. “That’s something that was very important to the show — that it didn’t feel like a remake or a reboot. It’s something that lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it’s its own thing. It’s not trying to be the movies or the ’60s TV show. That was very important to us and very important to Tim.”
Here’s the first look at the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky, and all together ooky Wednesday cast:
Shortly after this photo was taken I tested my antique limb stretcher on Pugsley. Little to no growth so far. pic.twitter.com/MO2Kot4feE
— Wednesday Addams (@wednesdayaddams) August 16, 2022
Burton previously passed on directing the Addams Family movies in the ’90s. But he was immediately intrigued by Millar and Gough’s take on the characters, especially its focus on the eponymous daughter.
“He really loved that you had time to be with Wednesday and explore the character and you didn’t have to, you know, wrap things up in an hour and 45 minutes,” Gough said. And this one’s for Burton stans: “The ambition for the show was to make it an 8-hour Tim Burton movie,” said Millar. Count us in.
In Wednesday, Ortega’s character is a high school teen — older than we’ve ever seen her in past versions. She’s trying to come into her own and break out of the glamorously dark shadow her mother, Morticia, casts. While at school at Nevermore Academy, (a prestigious boarding school for outcasts), Wednesday finds herself intrigued by a string of mysterious murders plaguing the school’s small town.
The death and decay of the circumstances are soothing for Wednesday, who Gough said is “not scared of sharks or creepy crawlies or anything, but she’s afraid of emotion.” Her family’s public displays of affection “drive Wednesday crazy,” he added, creating a love-hate relationship between her, her mother, and Pugsley.
One notably missing character from the cast photos is Uncle Fester, whose casting has yet to be announced. And they’re staying tight-lipped. “We have no comment on Uncle Fester,” Gough noted. “Just watch the show.”
Former Wednesday Christina Ricci also stars in the series along with Gwendoline Christie, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Joy Sunday, Emma Myers, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Georgie Farmer, Naomi Ogawa, and Moosa Mostafa.
Gough and Millar serve as showrunners and executive produce with Burton, Steve Stark, Andrew Mittman for 1.21, Kevin Miserocchi, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania, and Gail Berman. Also directing are Gandja Monteiro (Episodes 5 and 6) and James Marshall (Episodes 7 and 8).
Wednesday, Fall 2022, Netflix
