The dog days of summer might be dwindling down to their end, but all is not lost. With the promise of fall also brings the promise of spooky season, and Netflix has something special prepared for just the occasion. The streamer is giving one of horror’s first families a new look in Wednesday, an addition to the Addams Family mythos that will focus mostly on the iconically gothic daughter. One of the genre’s most innovative minds, Tim Burton, is at the helm of four of the eight episodes and serving as executive producer. The first trailer is finally here to satiate inquiring minds as to what to expect (hint: it’s giving big The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina vibes, if that’s your bag).
The series follows Jenna Ortega (You, The Fallout) as a teenage Wednesday trying to find out who she is outside of her infamous family as she navigates the murky waters of high school. After being kicked out of numerous places for her devilish ways (in the trailer, she unleashes a school of piranhas on the swim team bully), she finds a more understanding home at Nevermore Academy. Over the course of the season, she will try to hone her new psychic abilities to solve a decades-old murder that’s linked to her parents. “Little did I know that I’d be stepping into a nightmare,” Ortega says in the trailer. “Full of mystery, mayhem and murder. I think I’m going to love it here.”
The show also features Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, Luis Guzmán as Gomez, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley. Alfred Gough, who co-created the series with Miles Millar, told Vanity Fair, “The relationship that kind of hangs over the season is really Wednesday’s relationship with Morticia. How do you step out of the shadow of a mother as glamorous as Morticia?” Gough also gave Wednesday’s peculiarities a backstory, in that she loathes her parents' gooey love for one another that has trademarked all Addams Family iterations. He added, “Wednesday is not scared of sharks or creepy crawlies or anything, but she’s afraid of emotion. Their overt displays of affection drive Wednesday crazy.”
Netflix has not announced an official release date outside of the general fourth quarter, but our bets are on a Halloween premiere.
