Netflix’s Addams Family Spinoff Just Lost A Key Cast Member
The Addams Family series Wednesday on Netflix has just lost one of its major cast members. It's unclear how they will handle her part now
The Addams Family is getting yet another reboot coming down the pike on Netflix, though this new series will take a decidedly different approach to the story than the original and its predecessors. It will focus in on one character in her formative years, something we haven’t quite seen from this franchise yet. But the upcoming series was just dealt a blow with one of the main cast members leaving the production. Collider has it that Thora Birch has announced she is leaving Wednesday and won’t be returning.
As part of this announcement, it seems that her role of Tamara Novak in The Addams Family series Wednesday won’t initially need to be recast. Apparently, she had already wrapped up filming almost all of her scenes. If this is the case then there is a chance they are able to rework a few things at the tail end of the production to make sure her entire role needn’t be reshot. There seems to be the idea that a new character will come in to effectively fill the narrative role of Birch’s character, possibly leaving the door open for her to return sometime in the future.
The Addams Family spinoff Wednesday is set to follow the titular brooding character as she enrolls in the private school Nevermore Academy. The series plans on leaning into what happens to this kind of character as she’s slotted in among some elite boarding school folks, clearly playing off the dichotomy between her sullen broodiness as compared to what will likely be a rich-kid elite class. Thora Birch was slated to play one of the heads of Wednesday’s dormitory. Something of a house mother role. Jenna Ortega is set to star in the series as Wednesday.
While Wednesday will primarily focus on Ortega’s character as she deals with all sorts of supernatural problems befitting the theme of this franchise, other Addams family folks will make appearances. Most notably, Catherine Zeta-Jones is on as Morticia, the matriarch in the family. Originally, the character was played by Carolyn Jones in the original series and then famously by Anjelica Huston in the 1990 movie version. Meanwhile, Christina Ricci took on the role of Wednesday in that production.
Other notable in the Wednesday cast includes additional members of The Addams Family. Luis Guzman is on in at least a cameo as the father Gomez Addams. And newcomer Isaac Ordonez will play Pugsley. Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel and Oates) and Jamie McShane (Sons of Anarchy) have major parts in the series. It is being created and directed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. There is a good chance this new series has a decidedly different feel than past iterations of the franchise in both tone and comedic flare.
This next version of The Addams Family will air on Netflix sometime next year. While no confirmed release date is set for Wednesday on the streamer, it looks like production is beginning to wrap up now. We will have more about Thora Birch’s replacement in the show as it comes in.
