'Wednesday' Creator Clarifies Jenna Ortega's Comments About Filming With COVID
Gomez and Morticia Addams’s demon spawn—sorry, daughter—is finally getting the spotlight she deserves. Wednesday Addams, the death-obsessed teen whose idea of a lazy summer Friday involves electrocuting her brother, is headed to Netflix later this year, with You actress Jenna Ortega in the lead role. Judging by the new teaser, Netflix is going all-in on the macabre delights of everyone’s favorite goth. That’s no surprise given that Tim Burton is attached to direct; based on his previous work, we have a good idea of the show’s grim-meets-kooky aesthetic.
Wednesday, billed by Netflix as “a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery,” will follow the Addams’s only daughter as she attends the boarding school Nevermore Academy, where she juggles her newfound psychic powers and a supernatural murder mystery connected to her own family. Ahead, everything we know about Wednesday’s solo treatment.
When will the show come out?
Wednesday premiered later than expected on November 23. (Yes, the date did fall on a Wednesday.)
Who’s in the cast?
Apart from Ortega in the lead role, there was a stunning group of actors surrounding her.
Catherine Zeta-Jones will appear throughout the series as Morticia, the Addams family matriarch and Wednesday’s mother.
Victor Dorobantu will play Thing, the severed hand and servant seen in the teaser trailer.
George Burcea will play Lurch, the towering family manservant.
Isaac Ordonez will play Gomez and Morticia’s son, Pugsley.
Luis Guzmán will guest star as Gomez, the Addams family patriarch and Wednesday’s father.
Other actors with as-yet-unannounced roles include Gwendoline Christie, Jamie McShane, Emma Myers, Percy Hynes White, Moosa Mostafa, Thora Birch, Hunter Doohan, Riki Lindhome, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer, and Naomi Ogawa.
Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in the early ’90s films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, will also appear the role of Marilyn Thornhill, an original character and not from any older manifestation of the Addams Family story
What is Wednesday based on?
Like the films, TV series, and theatrical adaptations before it, Wednesday is based partly on the New Yorker cartoons first introduced by Charles Addams in 1938, further popularized in the 1960s by the sitcom adaptation The Addams Family. Based on the latter’s success, the family’s misadventures quickly became a franchise: A cartoon series arrived in the 1970s, followed by The Addams Family live-action movie in 1991, for which a sequel, Addams Family Values, landed in 1993. Both live-action and animated versions of the family continued the legacy, and then a 2010 Broadway musical, The Addams Family Musical, arrived to lackluster critical reception. Finally, two animated films were released in 2019 and 2021. This large canon serves as the backbone of Wednesday.
Can I see a trailer?
Netflix unveiled a teaser trailer in August, giving us our first look at Ortega as the dark, pigtailed icon. After being expelled from school (again), her parents enroll her in the eerie Nevermore Academy, where a new adventure awaits.
In a new clip unveiled during Tudum, Wednesday finds Thing, the famous severed human hand, in her dormitory. She knows it was sent to watch over her by her parents, but she convinces it to do to her bidding instead.
The first full trailer was shared in October 2022, at the show's New York Comic Con panel, revealing Christina Ricci's role in the show at Marilyn Thornhill, a member of Nevermore academy on the administrative side:
Will there be more than one season?
No word yet from Netflix, but given the buzz around Wednesday’s launch, there’s a solid chance it’ll be a hit—and in that case, expect season 2 news forthcoming.
Have the actors noticed the fan response?
After Wednesday's release, fans were already clamoring for more episodes. it seemed like the show had something for everyone. But one of the most notable topics that kept coming up online was the chemistry between Wednesday and her roommate Enid, played by Emma Myers. Enid is the happy-go-lucky side of the pair, loving bright colors and cheerfulness in stark contrast to Wednesday's macabre aesthetic. And yet, they work so well together.
A lot of people began campaigning for the pair to be more than friends, and the couple name “Wenclair” started trending on TikTok.
At a press event, Pride asked Ortega about the sapphic connotations of her and Myers relationship, and she responded, “In a perfect world, we would have been a thing.”
Myers added, “I always say, ‘And they were roommates!”’
The actress was referencing an old Vine that has become a meme about how queer relationships throughout history have been retold as strictly platonic. Myers said that even before the show came out, she and Ortega would joke about “and they were roommates” during filming, so they noticed the vibe, too.
“Jenna and I would say that all the time to each other. And that’s all that needs to be said — I think that gets the message across," she told Elite Daily.
Ortega was also asked why she think Wednesday Addams has become a queer icon, she replied, “I think because she’s a badass. She’s cool, she’s got a nice sense of style, but she’s somebody who embraces her differences and isn’t out to please anybody. I feel like that’s a really, really powerful thing to see. I feel like people want to see powerful women with powerful women.”
There's a plot point Jenna Ortega has been fighting.
On the subject of romantic plot points, Ortega apparently didn't think her character would be swooning over boys no matter what her sexuality is. In an interview with ETalk, she said that she fought against the dreaded love triangle ever show targeted at teens seems to have. In Wednesday, the triangle is with Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and Xavier (Percy Hynes White), who both fall for the morose supernatural teen.
“I told them very early on that I didn’t want her to be in the middle of a love triangle,” she said. “I’ve always been against the love triangle idea.”
She added, “As far as the boys went, I had to accept it – but honestly, I’m going to fight this love triangle thing so hard. Because I don’t think Wednesday would ever be in a love triangle...I talked to the writers about this and they said ‘don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s not gonna be that.’ I think there’s an opportunity there for a really sweet, platonic relationship because I don’t think it’s shown enough, men and women having safe, platonic relationships that don’t become romantic.”
She continued, “Almost sibling-like relationships, I think that would be really wonderful to see between her and Xavier. Honestly, I think boys are probably the last thing on Wednesday’s mind.”
Jenna Ortega choreographed her own viral dance.
In a classic school dance scene, Wednesday rocks out with her date on the dance floor and her moves were so compelling they went viral. On TikTok, everyone was doing Ortega's moves, and it turns out she actually came up with them herself. In an interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Ortega said, “Initially, they wanted a flash mob, but I thought, no, there's no way Wednesday would be cool with dancing and encouraging a bunch of people.”
Director Tim Burton tasked her with the choreography, she added.
“He was like, ‘I know you've got it. You've been working on it. I'm not even worried about it. I trust you.’ And I said, “Oh, yeah, you know, it's all so good.’”
She said her inspiration for the choreo came from artists Siouxsie Sioux, Lene Lovich, and Nina Hagen, and Denis Levant.
“I had not gone over it at all,” she continued. “Oh, my God. I was kicking myself. I felt like such a fool. I'm not a dancer. I don't do any of that. I have no experience in that field. I didn't sleep for two days.”
Ortega also said she was told her dance would be big on TikTok before it was even released. Prophecy fulfilled.
There was also a bit of controversy over the dance when Ortega mentioned having COVID-19 during filming. Clearly, she was not isolated in that scene, because a dance is basically a super spreader event. Creator Miles Millar told The Hollywood Reporter that Ortega's comments were miscontrued.
“We had extremely stringent COVID protocols that were enforced all the way through the dance,” Millar explained. “Jenna tested negative the day before, and only when a positive test came back, and as soon as it did, she was escorted off the set and went into quarantine for I think 10 days.”
He added that “there was no compromising of that in any decision to keep filming and film Jenna ill or sick, it was never a discussion... it was one of those things that basically was sort of blown out of proportion in terms of a story.”
This post will be updated.
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