It’s a match made in heaven: Tim Burton, auteur of all things creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, taking on an Addams Family project. And while the freaky family unit have been brought to the screen plenty of times before (most recently in animated form), Burton’s take is something new – a teen-drama-mystery series focused specifically on Wednesday Addams, titled Wednesday. And wouldn’t you know it, today is Wednesday – the perfect day to drop the first trailer for Wednesday. That’s spooky levels of synergy! His series stars Scream’s Jenna Ortega as a teenage version of the Addams’ death-loving daughter, causing carnage in school after school and stumbling across a murder plot. Watch the trailer:
That’s one hell of a first look – combining traditional Addams Family elements (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán seem like great casting for Morticia and Gomez, and there’s a brief glimpse of Thing at the end), plenty of Burtonian flourishes (those purple-and-black-stripe school uniforms are sure to become instant cosplay), and a real visual pop, with a hyper-colourful world providing significant contrast to the all-black-everything aesthetic of our central heroine. (That, in a way, feels like a throwback to the pastel-meets-goth clash of Edward Scissorhands.) Plus, there’s a brief but excellent glimpse of Gwendoline Christie as the formidable headteacher of Wednesday’s new school. All that, and there’s lashings of dark humour all over this thing, with darkly witty lines about Wednesday’s bloodthirsty leanings. All in, it looks like a blast.
And, most importantly, Ortega seems like fantastic casting for Wednesday herself – she has the smirk down, the deadpan drawl nailed, without just doing a carbon-copy of Christina Ricci’s version. An excellent addition to Scream and a standout in Ti West’s X, this looks set to be another success in a very big year for her. We’d watch her Wednesday solving crimes for hours – and luckily, that seems to be exactly what’s in store in the show, due to arrive on Netflix this autumn. (Our guess? It’ll be sometime around Halloween.) See you at Nevermore Academy later this year.