Tim Burton Casts His Wednesday Addams for Netflix Live-Action Series

Tim Burton has cast his new Wednesday Addams for Netflix’s forthcoming live-action Addams Family offshoot drama Wednesday.

Yes Day and You grad Jenna Ortega will star in the series from director Burton and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville, Into the Badlands).

Wednesday is described as a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.

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Burton will direct and exec produce the series. Gough and Millar will exec produce alongside Andrew Mittman (The Addams Family, Alphas), Kevin Miserocchi (Tee and Charles Addams Foundation), Kayla Alpert (Code Black, Up All Night), Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania (Addams Family 2) and Gail Berman (The Addams Family, Alphas). The series hails from MGM/UA Television.

Ortega steps into the role of Wednesday that has previously been played by Lisa Loring, Christina Ricci and, more recently, Chloë Grace Moretz as the Addams Family has been adapted from its original TV series into other animated and live-action TV series, Broadway shows and animated feature films.

Repped by CAA, Gilbertson Entertainment and Jackoway Austen, Ortega’s credits also include Elena of Avalor, Jane the Virgin, Stuck in the Middle and the upcoming Scream revival that is due next year.

Wednesday was taken out to market late last year and became the source of a bidding war among streamers, with Netflix edging multiple other bidders for the property that marks Burton’s first live-action TV foray. Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd, Batman) was previously attached to direct a 3D stop-motion animated take on The Addams Family nearly a decade ago, but the feature never came to fruition.

Created by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938, the comic has been adapted for film and TV multiple times over the years. John Astin and Carolyn Jones starred in a live-action TV series for ABC in the ’60s. An animated series followed in the ’70s before the famed family was revived in the ’90s with a pair of features starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia and Ricci (as Wednesday). That feature inspired an animated TV series with Astin reprising his role. In the late ’90s, Tim Curry and Daryl Hannah starred in a direct-to-video feature and short-lived live-action series. More recently, Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth brought The Addams Family to Broadway.