Wednesday is the latest live-action adaptation of The Addams Family franchise coming to Netflix on November 23, 2022. As the director, Tim Burton wanted to make sure that this new series would not be mistaken for a remake or a reboot, but a spinoff that focuses on an entirely new chapter of Wednesday’s life as she grows into adulthood. The main members of the Addams Family are all well-known and beloved, based on the original characters by Charles Addams. However, this version of Wednesday is much older than when we last saw her as portrayed by Christina Ricci. Now that Wednesday is of high school age, there are bound to be new faces in her life, both friends and foes. Watch the official trailer below if you haven’t seen it yet.
After bouncing from school to school due to multiple expulsions, Morticia and Gomez decide to enroll Wednesday at The Nevermore Academy, where they met and fell in love. In addition to acclimating to a new environment and navigating new relationships, Wednesday also stumbles upon a dark secret that goes back generations in her family. A mystery involving “serial killers, murders and monsters,” as Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega says in the “Inside the Character” video from Netflix.
It looks like she will need some help to uncover the truth, but who at her new school will be the one to become her ally? Perhaps she’ll find help through an unexpected friendship.
This handy guide will explain to you who’s in the cast and how their characters will interact on Wednesday before the series premiere on November 23rd.
Editor's Note: This article was last updated on November 23.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams
Young scream queen Jenna Ortega plays the titular character. Ortega was most recently seen in the latest Scream movie, as well as the A24 horror film X. She is stepping into the shiny black shoes of Wednesday Addams as she embarks on an adventure in her newest high school, The Nevermore Academy. Now older and at that age where a girl only has one thing on her mind (murder), Wednesday has to deal with latent psychic abilities, a killer monster, and worst of all, other people (ugh). Surrounded by “peers who will understand” her, as Morticia says in the trailer, it’s only a matter of time before Wednesday makes a friend, right? …Right?
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams
Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago) takes on the role of Morticia, Wednesday’s glamorously gothic mother. Morticia seems to have a closer relationship with her daughter compared to Gomez, who generally pays more attention to their son, Pugsley. That said, they're both loving parents who want the worst (read: best) for their daughter. Having met her husband Gomez at Nevermore, Morticia has fond memories of her time at the academy, having been at the very top of the eccentric school's social hierarchy during her time there.
In case you've been living under a rock and don't know already, Zeta-Jones is an Academy Award-winning actress whose most recent appearance was in the Fox drama Prodigal Son.
Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams
Gomez, the Addams family patriarch, is played by Luis Guzmán (Traffic). Deeply in love with his wife Morticia, Gomez is an eccentric oddball in pretty much every version of the ghoulish family. Guzmán is a very familiar face to movie and TV audiences, having appeared in many memorable roles over the 40+ years of his career. He's also frequently seen in movies by directors Steven Soderbergh and Paul Thomas Anderson. He was most recently seen in 2021's The Birthday Cake.
Christina Ricci as Marilyn Thornhill
It’s been confirmed for a while now that Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, will be involved in this show. She will be playing a character named Marilyn Thornhill and is credited for all eight episodes of the season. Before her character was officially introduced in the latest trailer, the only hint that Ricci gave was that she would not be playing an older version of Wednesday.
Now, it appears that her character might be a guidance counselor or another authority figure at Nevermore Academy. The question still remains…will her character be involved in the mystery that Wednesday sets out to solve?
Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams
Pugsley is Wednesday’s younger brother and is played by Isaac Ordonez (A Wrinkle In Time). Pugsley is expected to be appearing in 2 of the 8 episodes, so his character will most likely not have a prominent role in the series. In other versions of The Addams Family, Pugsley and Wednesday spend most of their time good-humoredly trying to kill each other. In the show, they have a more developed dynamic, with Wednesday being quite protective of her baby brother.
Gwendoline Christie as Larissa Weems
Thanks to the new trailer, Larissa Weems is confirmed to be the headmistress at the Nevermore Academy. She can be seen giving Wednesday and her parents a tour of the school’s campus, explaining how Nevermore was created to be a “safe haven for our children to learn and grow no matter who, or what, they are.” Her character is being played by Gwendoline Ritchie, who is best known for her role as Brienne of Tarth in the HBO series, Game of Thrones. Weems and Wednesday will likely be butting heads throughout the series.
Emma Myers as Enid Sinclair
Enid Sinclair is played by Emma Myers (Girl In The Basement). Will Enid become Wednesday’s friend or “frenemy?” You can see her character in the trailer sporting blond hair with colorful highlights asking Wednesday if she wants to “take a stab at being social,” to which Wednesday responds, “I like stabbing.” It’s unclear if she will go the same route as Amanda Buckman from Addams Family Values or if she will surprise us with a darker side that appeals to Wednesday, but she is her roommate, so they're bound to find their lives inextricably linked for the duration of their schooling. We also know that Enid is a werewolf who's still finding her furry feet, and that makes her somewhat distanced from the rest of her lupine community.
“She’s a bit of a late bloomer, which causes her to feel ostracized from her own community,” Myers says about the character in an article from Netflix.
“And until Wednesday shows up, she hasn’t really learned how to stand up for herself yet. But Wednesday teaches her an important lesson on how to accept yourself, and stand up for yourself.”
Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay
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Joy Sunday (Dear White People) plays the character Bianca Barclay. She is seen in the trailer rolling her eyes, and again later on in a fencing duel with Wednesday. The question needs to be asked yet again, will she form some sort of friendship with Wednesday, or will they be rivals? The fact that they are shown fencing without the protective face masks would indicate more of a tense rivalry between the two. Bianca is a siren, not one of the most common species featured in fantasy shows but an appropriate one considering she's pretty much the Queen Bee of Nevermore before Wednesday shows up. As a siren, Bianca has the ability to compel people to do things just by talking to them, an ability that she may use to Wednesday's disadvantage. The character is clearly being set up to be Wednesday's rival, with hints of a love triangle between Bianca, Wednesday, and Bianca's ex Xavier.
Hunter Doohan as Tyler Galpin
Although very briefly, Tyler appears in the trailer running alongside Wednesday, looking over his shoulder as if someone (or something) is chasing them. Tyler is played by Hunter Doohan, who played Bryan Cranston’s son in the Showtime drama series Your Honor. Tyler is also the son of Sheriff Donovan Galpin, played by Jamie McShane (Bloodline), which will likely come in handy during the series. It’s not to say that simply running next to Wednesday immediately means they’ve teamed up, but it does appear that way in the clip from the trailer. Unlike most of the other characters, Tyler is a normal human who happens to live in Jericho county, where Nevermore is located. He's also "quite the barista," according to Doohan.
Percy Hynes White as Xavier Thorpe
The Gifted star Percy Hynes White plays the role of Xavier Thorpe, another one of Wednesday’s new classmates at Nevermore Academy. In the trailer, he is seen sitting next to her when she squashes a giant black spider that came to life off of a sketchbook. He is a psychic artist with the ability to make his drawings come to life. Was the spider crawling toward her meant to be a threat? We will have to wait to find out if Xavier will befriend Wednesday or if he tries to bully her before learning some hard lessons at her hands, like the spider. Like Bianca, Xavier is one of the popular kids at the academy and has a resultant sense of entitlement that Wednesday is certainly going to squash. There are hints of a potential romance between the two characters, though we'll just have to wait and see how far that goes.
Riki Lindhome as Dr. Valerie Kinbott
Dr. Kinbott is played by Riki Lindhome. Lindhome is a well-known face in the comedy world though she's perhaps best known for her portrayal of Donna Thrombey in Knives Out, as well as her villainous role of Sadie in the 2009 remake of The Last House On The Left. She’s not shown in the teaser trailer, but it’s safe to say she is probably employed at the Nevermore Academy as an in-house doctor… something that is sure to be necessary considering who’s in the student body.
Victor Dorobantu as Thing
Of course, Thing doesn’t have a face to attribute to the actor, but he seems to play a prominent role in the upcoming Wednesday series. Even without any spoken lines, Thing always brings comedic moments to the movies and will no doubt continue to do so in the series. It’s not an easy task to make audiences love your character when all they have to go off of is… a disembodied hand. Romanian actor and magician Victor Dorobantu stepped up to the plate for this role, so we’ll see if his magician’s handwork will come into play. Tim Burton was reportedly intent on having an actor play the Thing instead of using CGI.
“Because when you write a very emotional scene between Wednesday and a disembodied hand, you hope it is going to play on-screen,” co-creator Miles Millar has said. “It’s really a tribute to Jenna and Victor that you really get that connection and sense of deep friendship.”
Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester
Laws don't mean a thing to Fester Addams, Gomez's brother and Wednesday's beloved uncle, who appears to be something of a bank robber in the series based on how Netflix has described his character. Despite his eccentric, oddball nature, Fester is a masterful practitioner of the dark arts who's always there to lend Wednesday a helping hand. This classic Addams Family member has been portrayed by a number of actors before, of whom Christopher Lloyd's take on the character in the 1991 film is worth giving special mention. In Wednesday, the role is taken on by beloved comedy actor Fred Armisen.
Armisen is best known for Portlandia, Saturday Night Live, and the parody series, Documentary Now! While he is only credited to make an appearance in one episode, his character will undoubtedly have a huge influence on Wednesday. Just look at the way her face lights up when she sees him in the trailer.
George Burcea as Lurch
Lurch, known for his Frankenstein-esque appearance, is an honorary member of the Addams Family. He serves the family as their butler and chauffeur and provides comedically-timed grunts as his main way of communicating. Lurch will be in three episodes and is played by George Burcea (Comrade Detective). Similar to Victor Dorobantu, who will play Thing, Burcea is also from Romania and is a well-known theater and film actor in the country.
Apart from these actors and characters, Wednesday also features Georgie Farmer as Ajax Petropolus, Naomi J. Ogawa as Yoko Tanaka (a vampire), Moosa Mostafa as Eugene Otinger, Tommie Earl Jenkins as Mayor Walker, Iman Marson as Lucas Walker, William Houston as Joseph Crackstone, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Deputy Santiago, Oliver Watson as Kent, Calum Ross as Rowan, Johnna Dias Watson as Divina, and Murray McArthur as Fabian, among others.
There are still plenty of questions surrounding the series, and only time will give us the answers. All eight episodes are available to stream on Netflix as of Wednesday, November 23rd. If you find your patience wearing thin, you can always watch both the 1991 and 1993 live-action films on Netflix in the meantime.