Netflix releases first teaser for Tim Burton’s Wednesday series
Jenna Ortega takes on the role of the surly, devious Addams daughter in a new series
Aux News Netflix
Netflix has finally shared the first teaser for Tim Burton’s upcoming series Wednesday, a reimagining of The Addams Family with Scream 4's Jenna Ortega stepping into the tightly coiffed braids of the titular character. Although there’s still no confirmed release date for the “twisted new series,” the teaser focuses in on its newest star and sets the stage for a very spooky, scary watch.
In the clip, all eyes are on Ortega’s Wednesday as she tightens her braids, straightens her sharp white collar, and pierces the camera with her character’s signature withering stare. Ortega has clearly done her homework when it comes to embodying Wednesday; the young actress nails Wednesday’s menacingly bored demeanor right down to the slight pout of her lips.
After the screen flashes with “Netflix Woefully Presents,” Wednesday—who initially appears to be all alone in a shadowy black room—is joined by a familiar face who has no face at all: Thing, the severed hand who serves as the Addams’ butler in previous adaptations. As the teaser concludes, both Wednesday and Thing snap their fingers, immediately leading the ear to the iconic Addams Family theme song.
The teaser continues to up the mystery of what, exactly, this new vision of The Addams Family will entail. Catherine Zeta Jones and Luis Guzmán signed on last year to play Morticia and Gomez Addams, Wednesday’s darkly romantic parents. Christina Ricci, who starred as Wednesday in 1991's The Addams Family and its 1994 sequel Addams Family Values, will reportedly take on a mysterious, unspecified role in the project.
Netflix previously shared the logline for Wednesday, stating: “The series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s 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.”
58 Comments
I just can’t get excited about a Tim Burton film anymore. I remember when it came out he was going to do a remake of Planet of the Apes I was so excited because I thought he was going to do something super weird and different instead it was just….that. The only exceptions are Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie but hasn’t made a truly great film since Ed Wood.
Pretty crazy run up until Mars Attacks, though (or including it, if you’re tuned into its very specific camp wavelength).
I like Mars Attacks but on rewatch you can kinda see the beginnings of his worst impulses there.
I don’t care for Tim Burton’s general aesthetic, so Mars Attacks! is one of the few movies in his filmography that I genuinely like.
Mars Attacks! held up well for me, still found it pretty damn funny and the right kind of campy when I re-watched it a few years back. For me, Burton was good up through Sleepy Hollow. It’s been really scattershot (mostly bad) since then.
One had to appreciate the sheer balls of Mars Attacks! to kill Michael J Fox first (Yes, I know Jack Black was first, but he wasn’t Jack Black yet.)
Normally I’d agree (though I also think his version of Sweeney Todd had merit), but I’m not sure there’s a better match of creator to creation than Tim Burton and The Addams Family. He basically just has to show up and sleepwalk for it to work.
Sweeney Todd’s biggest problem was that Tim Burton sleepwalked through it and relied on cliched casting.
Tim Burton has been sleepwalking through his movies since ‘Big Fish’
Yeah, but this is the first time in a long time he can sleepwalk through something and still pull it off.
You would think, but look what happened with Dark Shadows.
…fair enough.
it’s also not a movie it’s a series so it’s going to be longer and worse. burton isn’t untalented but i don’t see him showing up for this.
Is Big Fish good? I remember liking it when I saw it but I have never revisited it.
I really liked Big Fish.
Maybe I’m due for a rewatch.
He returned to his roots a little bit there but you can see him wanting mainstream success with it. I kinda wish they wouldn’t let him use special effects, he needs limits to achieve peak creativity.
I actually really liked ‘Big Fish’, but that was an outlier after the high water mark of ‘Ed Wood.’ Even Mars Attacks was just… fine.
I saw them do the BSG remake and fanbois screamed about ruined childhoods. I liked it. I saw them do the TMNT, Spiderman, Star Trek, and so many other remakes and fanbois screamed about ruined childhoods. I liked it.But then Tim Burton remade Dark Shadows. That’s when my childhood felt raped. Dark Shadows was never supposed to be funny. At all.
I liked Big Eyes, it was predictable like a true crime movie almost always is but it was still well made.
Its alright but I found myself wishing Wes Anderson had done it instead which might be a weird take.
“Netflix Woefully Presents,”
This should precede everything of theirs.
Oh-ho, snap!
I might need to know what Christina Ricci’s role is & how significant it is before I can decide how interested I am in this
You can bet there will be all kinds of winking references made to the original films. Because FAN SERVICE!
This whole thing is a Christina Ricci-as-Wednesday reference, since she reinvented (for the better!) the characterization with the two live action movies.
I think she’s playing a teacher/mentor. She’s replacing Thora Birch who dropped out for some reason.
Hopefully she’ll be playing Misty Quigley – Wednesday’s mentor.
This is one of those things I’ll be watching just to see how badly they manage to fuck it up.
Don’t you mean it’s one of those Things you’ll be watching?
It’s going to be really confusing when this debuts on a Thursday.
Oh, yeah, this thing.
I feel like they really dropped the ball on this. They could have made a prequel series and called it Tuesday
Or a sequel, where she moves to Britain and becomes even more downbeat: “Wednesday Weak.”
They can always get John Landis to produce the eventual reboot, “See You Next Wednesday”.
Getting John Landis involved for a reboot so soon feels like we’re getting a head of ourselves.
Theme song by Aimee Mann: Voices Scary
I’d be more excited if she wasn’t given some kind of weird psychic power? Because that kind of screams “We’re taking this way more seriously than we really should.”
Also if this is an hour long, this means there’ll be the usual C and D plots in prestige TV that I’m starting to absolutely abhor. Make tighter, more concise shows, please.
Lurch is the family butler. Thing is just there for hijinks.
Tim Burton’s involvement in this will validate the people who have always assumed he made the two Addams Family movies from the ‘90s.
“Scream 4’s Jenna Ortega”WRONG
“Thing, the severed hand who serves as the Addams’ butler in previous adaptations.”WRONG
What the hell did Thing do anyways, other than mooch off the family?
Well, Gomez and Morticia seemed pretty sexually adventurous…
I mean, there’s no way that entire family isn’t using Thing for handjobs.
Mooch? I don’t think Thing ever ate or needed anything.
I always considered him more of a hanger on than anything else.
Well that was pretty much nothing. Thanks.
I cannot believe this article didn’t touch on the fact that Sean Penn is playing Cousin It, that Shaq is playing Lurch, and that Jada Pinkett Smith is playing (now) Aunt Fester! Dropping the ball here AV Club.
Thing is not the butler. Thing is, well… Thing.
Lurch is the butler, and has been since the New Yorker comic strips appeared over 75 years ago.Don’t you guys do any research before posting this stuff?
Thing is a…handservant?I’ll show my self out.
Content farms. Go figure.
If only this was 90s Tim Burton doing a direct spinoff from the two Raul Julia/Anjelica Houston flicks… but I’ll give it a shot, since Jenna Ortega was great in Scream and X.
Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday!This isn’t about you Pugsley.IT NEVER IS!
This looks great and I can’t wait to be disappointed when it’s cancelled after two seasons.
Why does “Wednesday is also a psychic detective now” strike me as some writer’s room spinning a wheel and throwing a dart at it?
#NeverForget the web series that was here first, and coincidentally the creator was told to stop at around about the time the upcoming Burton project was announced.
“Christina Ricci, who starred as Wednesday in 1991’s The Addams Family and its 1994 sequel Addams Family Values, will reportedly take on a mysterious, unspecified role in the project.”
If this shit has time travel, I’m gonna fucking kill myself.