Jenna Ortega Cast as Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Addams Family Spinoff Series

The new Addams Family series coming to Netflix has finally found its star. The title of the new series is Wednesday, and it’s a show focused on Wednesday Addams, directed and executive produced by acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton. Netflix announced this week that Jenna Ortega has been cast as the titular character in the new project, taking on the beloved role of Wednesday Addams.

Ortega is a former Disney Channel star that has become something of a Netflix mainstay over the last few years. After a starring role in the second season of You, Ortega had major parts in The Babysitter: Killer Queen and Jennifer Garner’s Yes Day. She also voices one of the main characters in the animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Outside of Netflix, Ortega recently completed filming a role in the highly-anticipated fifth installment of the Scream franchise, hitting theaters in 2022.

Burton will direct and executive produce Wednesday, while Smallville‘s Al Gough and Miles Millar serves as showrunners and executive producers. The live-action series will consist of eight episodes.

“We then got the call that visionary director and lifelong Addams Family fan Tim Burton wanted to make his television directorial debut with this series,” Netflix original series director Teddy Biaselli said in a release. “Tim has had a history of telling empowering stories about social outsiders like Edward Scissorhands, Lydia Deitz, and Batman. And now he brings his unique vision to Wednesday and her spooky classmates at Nevermore Academy.”

Here’s the official Wednesday logline from Netflix:

“The series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.”

What do you think of Wednesday’s casting for the new series? Are you excited to check out the show when it arrives on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!