20-year-old Jenna Ortega takes on the role of Wednesday Addams in Netflix's new series Wednesday, reinventing the cult classic character portrayed by Christina Ricci in the early 1990s. Ricci first starred as Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film The Addams Family and again its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. 19 years later, Ricci returns to play Marilyn Thornhill in Wednesday, passing the baton off to Jenna Ortega to take on the role of Wednesday Addams.
Netflix's Wednesday revolves around the show's namesake and her adventures at boarding school whilst trying to solve a small-town murder mystery. Juggling pressure from her parents, her therapist, and her newfound friends, Wednesday gradually learns to balance being tough and vulnerable, all the while maintaining her deadpan, colorless aura. Starring alongside Christina Ricci, who is one of the 7 actresses who have played Wednesday Addams, Jenna Ortega successfully brings to life her own version of the beloved character that continues and honors many traditions established by Ricci in the 1990s, providing a seamless transition to audiences in front of the screen everywhere.
How The Netflix Show Changes Wednesday Addams
Morticia and Gomez send Wednesday to the same boarding school where they met and fell in love, Nevermore Academy, in the small town of Jericho. There, Wednesday attends school with her supernatural peers, aka the "outcasts", including vampires, sirens, seers, gorgons, telekinetics, and so on. Although the Addams Family cartoons, TV show, and films have always included supernatural elements to the Addams family members, never before has a larger community of supernatural beings been introduced in the Addams Family universe, making the Tim Burton-led Wednesday's Nevermore Academy and its members a new addition to the Addams Family canon. As she learns from her headmaster, Wednesday herself is a seer, just like her mother Morticia, and she starts having visions of people and places she encounters, both of the past and into the future, although she is not able to control her powers at the beginning of the season.
The writers also gave Wednesday a backstory that was not previously part of the Addams Family canon. As we learn as the season unfolds, Wednesday's ancestry from her father's bloodline traces back to a dark and violent period in Jericho's history with the "outcast" species. Her legacy as a seer bestows on her a responsibility that she might not be equipped to handle.
In the 1990s film renditions, Wednesday is mostly occupied with ideas and experiments of torturing her brother, finding new and inventive ways to entertain herself with Pugsley's suffering, or scheming to murder her newest baby brother Pubert in order to eliminate more competition for her parents' attention. Netflix's "Nancy Drew-esque" series (in Jenna Ortega's words) on the other hand, gives Wednesday a knack for detective work and a writing career, which she uses as an emotional outlet and with which she processes her relationship with her mother.
How Jenna Ortega's Appearance As Wednesday Differs From Christina Ricci's
Unlike Christina Ricci's version of Wednesday, Ortega's Wednesday is given straight bangs, but the rest of her hair is still tied into two pigtails just like Ricci's version in the 1990s. Wednesday sticks to her black (mainly) and white color scheme throughout the show, but she is given a more diverse wardrobe than in the original films. In a conversation between the two actresses published by Interview Magazine, Ortega and Ricci discuss the fact that Ortega's Wednesday occasionally wears hoodies and pants—pieces common to the modern teenager but never seen before on Ricci's Wednesday Addams.
Ortega admits that she had doubts about the wardrobe change, worrying that the show was "straying too far from the original plot", but that she ultimately had faith in costume designer Colleen Atwood's talent and judgment, which Ricci enthusiastically agrees with. The synergy and trust between the actors and the TV crew further is another sign that Ortega is perfect for the role. Besides serving a practical purpose of updating the show for the current zeitgeist, Wednesday's updated wardrobe also serves to help flesh out the character's inner world. For instance, the striped shirts that Wednesday frequently wears are similar to her younger brother Pugsley's signature look. Although she would not be caught dead saying it out loud, Wednesday cares for her brother immensely, and wearing his shirt is her way of carrying him with her while she's away from home.
How Netflix Changes Wednesday's Family & Relationships
The Netflix version of the Addams family is a little different from the original TV series and films. Gomez and Morticia, who took on a more laissez-faire approach to parenting their children in the 1990s rendition, are quite concerned about Wednesday's education and social development in the new series, sending her off to boarding school in the hopes of her finding belonging there. Wednesday's parents, Gomez Addams and Morticia Addams, share a closer bond with their daughter in the 1990s films, but are at odds with her in Wednesday. Family and family values (as the 1993 film title indicates) are at the core of the original Addams Family films, and Anjelica Huston's Morticia wouldn't have fathomed sending Wednesday, or any family member for that matter, away from the rest of the family. Ricci's Wednesday, similarly, though disgusted by her parents incessant display of affection, respected her elders, including her parents, her uncle, and her grandmother. In Wednesday, Wednesday is much more spiteful and defiant toward her mother, and Morticia, who is usually shown to delight in her daughter's inventive experiments and escapades, is quite controlling as a parent in Wednesday.
Thing, the animated severed hand that is considered a cross between a pet and a family member to the Addamses, plays a large supporting role in Wednesday. As opposed to The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, in which Thing mostly does Gomez and Morticia's biddings, Thing is much closer to Wednesday in Wednesday. Thing becomes Wednesday's loyal sidekick and closest confidante after she discovers that her parents sent Thing to spy on her, and Thing helps her gather evidence for the case and keeps her accountable for her mistakes. On top of Thing, Wednesday also makes friends of her peers, namely her roommate Enid, a beekeeping aficionado Eugene, a "normie" kid Tyler, and Tyler's rival Xavier. Used to solitude, Wednesday often makes the mistake of taking her friends for granted, nonetheless, they stick by her when she needs them the most.
Why Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Has More Of A Personality
Made as a coming-of-age drama, Netflix's Wednesday is about the struggles of adolescence, both internally and in interpersonal relationships, which makes Wednesday's character in the series drastically more colorful by nature of her story compared to 1991's The Addams Family. Ricci's first portrayal of Wednesday Addams started at the age of 10 in the 1991 film, compared to Ortega's Wednesday who is around the age of 16 and in high school. Therefore, by stages of development, Ortega's Wednesday has more autonomy, responsibility, and expectations from others than Ricci's version. Exploring each of these aspects in Wednesday's life allows the audience to see a more multifaceted, nuanced, and dynamic character than depicted in the 1990s films.
Why Jenna Ortega Was The Perfect Choice To Play Wednesday Addams
Taking on a role that has seen so many renditions and also has a classically iconic version is undoubtedly daunting, and Ortega deserves the recognition for not only living up to Ricci's interpretation of the character, but adding onto the foundation that Ricci built for Wednesday. Nailing the deadpan delivery that Ricci did so well years prior, Ortega states in an appearance on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna that she would relax all her facial muscles, tilt her chin down, look through her eyebrows with the "Kubrick stare" and not blink, using mostly her eyebrows to convey subtle emotion. In the TV interview, Ortega laughs that because of her decision not to blink as Wednesday, many long takes would be ruined by her uncontrollably tearing up. Speaking with Jenna Ortega in a conversation published by Interview Magazine, Christina Ricci gives Ortega an encouraging nod of approval for Ortega's take on the classic character in Wednesday, calling it "a great, modern interpretation" and "true to the spirit of the character". Additionally, being the first Latina actor to take on the role, Ortega herself will finally lend some realism to Wednesday's Spanish heritage.