With his upcoming transition from feature films to streaming TV, Tim Burton is expanding the Addams Family live-action universe with the new series Wednesday, which has been steadily building up an impressive cast as led by You's Jenna Ortega in the title role. Game of Thrones vet Gwendoline Christie has become the latest celebration-worthy casting addition, sticking with Netflix after portraying Lucifer in Neil Gaiman's long-awaited Sandman adaptation. Snap snap!
Perhaps understandably, the fair-haired and blue-eyed Gwendoline Christie is not joining Wednesday as one of the proto-goth Addams family members, as amazing as that might be. (I suppose she could still play a gender-swapped version of Uncle Fester with a shaved head.) Instead, Netflix announced Christie will be joining this universe as the character Larissa Weems, who serves as the principal of Nevermore Academy, where Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Addams is a student.
While we can expect to see Wednesday getting into trouble at Nevermore — unless this is somehow the one story in existence that involves a teenager who doesn't cause havoc at school — it sounds like Gwendoline Christie's principal is connected to another member of the family. Larissa Weems was a former classmate of one Morticia Addams, as portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones, and there was apparently some bad blood between the two, as Larissa is still harboring foul feelings for Morticia all these years later. I'm keeping all four of Thing's fingers crossed that viewers will get to see Christie and Zeta-Jones brawling, because wowzers.
Across the initial season's eight episodes, Wednesday will tell a supernatural sleuth-heavy tale in which the titular character develops and hones newly formed psychic abilities. As if forging relationships at a new school wasn't already hard enough under such circumstances, Wednesday will also attempt to put an end to a killing spree in the local town, as well as solving a decades-old mystery involving her parents Morticia and Gomez, with the latter being played by Luiz Guzman. I'm betting that latter mystery involves Gwendoline Christie's principal, but maybe they're all in on it.
Gwendoline Christie isn't the only new cast member joining Wednesday's line-up, either. Tim Burton & Co. have apparently rounded out the casting, with up-and-coming actor Isaac Ordonez set to play Pugsley Addams, Dampyr's George Burcea as Lurch, and the hand of Victor Dorabantu as Thing. Neither Uncle Fester nor Grandma Addams have been cast, and considering the guest-starring descriptor for the other family members, it's not entirely clear if those roles will be filled or not. (I mean, we'll riot if they don't, but still.) Other previous castings worth noting are comedian Riki Lindhome as Wednesday's new therapist Dr. Valerie Kinbott, and Thora Birch as one of the only "normal" humans within the Nevermore population.
At this point, it's not yet clear when Wednesday will make its way to Netflix's library, but it'll likely premiere at some point in 2022. In the meantime, be sure to keep track of everything hitting the 2021 Fall TV schedule for all the spooky, kooky and altogether dramatic TV programming. Wait, that last part didn't rhyme...
