Lesser-known facts about the new Addams Family adaptation, Wednesday

Acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton, renowned for his gothic horror and black comedy films, is back with a new TV series. He is the director of the latest adaptation of everyone's favorite creepy family, The Addams Family, created by Charles Addams. The new Netflix original series titled Wednesday features Wednesday Addams as the primary character with Jenna Ortega playing the titular role. So for today’s Now You Know podcast we take a look at lesser-known facts about the horror comedy series.

1. Gomez Addams, Wednesday’s father, has often been portrayed as a suave, sophisticated, and handsome character in various film and TV adaptations. However, Tim Burton decided to cast Luis Guzmán to depict the character, who is closer in appearance to Charles Addams’s original version — a stout man with slightly less striking features.
2. Unlike most versions of the Addams Family the story is not set in the Addams family estate but in a new location called the Nevermore Academy, the boarding school where Wednesday is enrolled. The name Nevermore is inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe poem titled The Raven, where a bird constantly uses the phrase ‘Nevermore’.
3. In the series, Wednesday is depicted as someone who is highly intelligent and anti-social. She is also shown as someone who is an expert fencer and a proficient cellist. And for the purposes of artistic authenticity, Jenna Ortega learned to play the cello for the show.
4. The Addams Family is depicted as Latino in the series. However, Catherine Zeta-Jones who plays the mother, Morticia Addams, is Welsh. In fact, this isn’t the first time Zeta-Jones has played a Latino character; she played the role of a Latino character named Elena Montero opposite Antonio Banderas in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.
5. Both Jenna Ortega and Christina Ricci have essayed the role of Wednesday. Ortega in the new Netflix series and Ricci in the 1991 film The Addams Family. Both actresses share another connection through the Jurassic Park franchise. Ortega is a regular voice actor for the animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, whereas Ricci auditioned for the role of Lex Murphy in Steven Spielberg’s first 1993 film Jurassic Park. Ricci also plays the role of a character named Marilyn Thornhill in the new series.
6. Christina Ricci was a last-minute addition to the cast after actress Thora Birch left the production due to personal reasons. However, Birch was supposed to essay a character named Tamara Novak and Marilyn Thornhill, but she had already filmed several scenes and the showrunners decided to scrap the character entirely and add a new character in her place with Ricci.

Well that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today. Until the next episode its your host Nikhil signing out.

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• Written by Ryan Gomez