Catherine Zeta-Jones to play Morticia Addams on Netflix’s Wednesday
Tim Burton's Netflix series about Wednesday Addams has added the creepy and kooky matriarch
TV News Netflix
Just a few days after we found out that the great Luis Guzmán would be playing Gomez Addams in Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday (a very fun choice), Netflix has announced another big addition to the cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones will be guest-starring as Morticia Addams, filling the creepy and kooky shoes that previously belonged to the likes of Carolyn Jones, Anjelica Huston, Daryl Hannah, and—most recently, in the 2019 animated movie—Charlize Theron. The fact that Zeta-Jones’ involvement is being billed as a guest star role means she probably won’t pop up in the eight-episode Netflix series all that much, but that’s to be expected.
After all, the show is called Wednesday, not The Addams Family, and it’s about the eponymous all-together ookey daughter of the family (played by Jenna Ortega from Scream here). Rather than having family adventures, the show—like Black-ish spin-off Grown-ish—is about Wednesday going off to school at Nevermore Academy and getting involved in “a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery.” She’s going to learn how to use psychic powers, she’s going to “thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town,” and she’s going to “solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago.” You know, the supernatural mystery that Gomez and Morticia are always going on about? The one that nobody could solve until Wednesday started attending Nevermore Academy? (We’re just having a laugh, we know you can’t make a Netflix show without some kind of overarching mystery that people will tweet about.)
Like we noted above, the series is being directed and executive produced by Tim Burton, which is much more exciting than that famous supernatural mystery anyway. Al Gough and Miles Millar are serving as showrunners, and the rest of the cast—as in, Wednesday’s brother Pugsley and maybe Uncle Fester—has yet to be announced.
53 Comments
This is fast becoming one of those shows I lose some interest in with every announcement.
You sound like no fun! Let’s wait until some actual footage or even some on-set photos before we declare it irredeemable trash!
Yeah, give it the same respect we give Star Wars!
CZJ and Guzman’s casting are the only promising things I have heard about this, but “post-2000 Tim Burton product” already eliminated any potential for excitement in me. Then you add in that it sounds like multiple other teen Netflix/CW shows, AND its being run by the guys who ran Smallville and its like diarrhea on top of turd sundae.
Post 2000? I still like Big Fish and kind of love Sweeney Todd. Big Eyes is worth watching and might be more fondly remembered if everyone wasn’t so tired of him. Anything else, yeah…
I enjoyed Big Fish well enough, but it didn’t stick with me like early Burton and I have no desire to rewatch it. Sweeney Todd was a mixed bag, I alternated between finding it embarrassing or entertaining. Haven’t seen Big Eyes because by that point I had completely given up on Burton. His ‘85-’99 run shaped my tastes heavily, (I was born in ‘85 and liked/loved everything he made up until Sleepy Hollow) and he and James Cameron were the first directors I knew by name, so it was a bummer when Planet of the Apes and most of his movies afterward completely failed for me. And holy shit, considering at this point how mediocre-at-best most Netflix projects are, and how desperate most of these IP reboots/extensions in recent years feel, “Tim Burton directs Netflix show about old Wednesday Addams” goes beyond feeling unnecessary into (to me at least) feeling like it could be the depressing death rattle for an increasingly flailing and creatively bankrupt career.
“being run by the guys who ran Smallville”Well, there goes another fuck.
“post-2000 Tim Burton product” already eliminated any potential for excitement in me.
While I generally agree, the fact that his actual best movie is Big Fish means you gotta tweak the expiration date a little.
Big Fish was his last movie I fully enjoyed, but it didn’t really stick with me and I never felt the need to rewatch that I did with PeeWee, Beetlejuice, Scissorhands, Ed Wood, or even the Batmans.
Oh funny I’m having the opposite reaction. The addition of Guzman moved the show from “eh” to “I definitely need to check out at least one episode.” Jones sweetens the pot.
Guzman is the reason I’ll be checking it out. Burton is the reason I have incredibly low expectations. CZJ is cool enough.
‘cause that’s what she does!
This is fast becoming one of those shows I lose some interest in with every announcement..Same.She’s not only no Carolyn Jones, she’s not even fit to be mentioned with Angelica Houston. There’s definitely a loss of fidelity going down…
Wasn’t she pretty good in the Coen Brothers thing?
might want to spell her name right (Anjelica Huston) if you’re going to talk about how great you think she is.
Because casting interesting actors is somehow…bad?Because your taste is the opposite of good?
“Because casting interesting actors is somehow…bad?”The Guzman article was a few days ago. This ain’t it.
Catherine Zeta-Jones marrying Luis Guzman is slightly more believable than her marrying Michael Douglas.
The perfect casting lightning bolt struck once on this franchise. It doesn’t appear ready to strike again.
John Astin/Carolyn Jones or Raul Julia/Anjelica Huston?
Don’t make me choose! I don’t think I can! Though, Raul Julia……I’ll be in my bunk😎
Mom…my nuts?
Yes.
Julia/Huston/Ricci/Lloyd. I get that Astin/Jones is classic, but they didn’t have the backup. Add a little Hedaya on top and we’ve got an unstoppable machine.
I like your reasoning.
Well, twice.
Good. For a minute there I was worried they were gonna do the whole fat guy has a hot wife nonsense.
she’s going to “thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town,”Thwart? This sounds like something Wednesday would cheer.
This, more than anything, makes me think that they don’t really care about staying true to the IP all that much.
Wow first announcement to make me sort of interested in this.
What’s next, Seth freakin Rogen as Cousin Itt? I mean, I ask you! Holy cow.
Consarnit, Mw, calm yerself! Yer ticker’ll give out!
Aw, heck! I don’t give a ding dong doodily crap!
25 years ago I would never have believed that the mention of Tim Burton would actively turn me away from a project
You can close your eyes and say ‘What if Tim Burton made The Addams Family’ and it wouldn’t take an ounce of imagination to know what to expect.
For the life of me I don’t know why they’re trying to turn the fucking Addams Family into some sexy and violent reimagining. Literally the entire point of the comic strip and earlier TV shows was that they were creepy weirdos on the outside and kind-hearted on the inside, and outside of fucking Thing there was hardly anything supernatural.
Hell, if they wanted an IP that contained shit-tons of actual monsters, The Munsters was sitting right there.
Yeah, I hate this, it’s a crappy cash-in and it’s completely tone deaf as to what the Addams Family was about. I think Rob Zombie is making a Munsters for Dumbasses by the way.
I get your point. But to be fair, “sexy” was always part of the package. Gothic sexy, maybe, but don’t tell me that Raul Julia getting off Anjelica Huston talking French was not doing… some things to some people.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant “sexy” in the sense of Sabrina or True Blood or Penny Dreadful, where people are fucking vampires who then rip their faces off or whatever. A happily married couple keeping each other happy can definitely be sexy, but it’s more in the “sweet” category for me.
As someone who ended up with a woman who has a strong Morticia Addams vibe, trust me when I say that I get the appeal.
Can’t they be kind-hearted creepy weirdos with sex, violence and fucking Thing?
(I’m not sure how the last bit would go down)
This is starting to sound interesting
Again: great casting, but the premise sounds like total ass. Just give us a sitcom about these weirdos, nobody needs or wants this discount fucking Riverdale. If you want more Riverdale, just order 3 more seasons preemptively.
Good.
Uncle Fester isn’t going to be in this. He’s getting his own Netflix show, FESTER, a gritty police procedural.
Played by Dean Norris
I’ll take eight!
Dennis Franz IS Fester!
With a MAN in The White House? Ha! Not likely!
Scream Here?
Hmm, the director, producer, and showrunners of a show about a woman are all men. merylstreepgroundbreaking.gif
I’m fucking in. I think Jones & Guzman will be great in these roles.
Seems like a good choice but I’m still upset that Oscar Isaac got cast to only do Gomez’ voice. No problems with Luis Guzman, I think he’s a great choice, but still… Oscar Issac.
So Netflix canceled Sabrina the Teenage Witch for this?