Christina Ricci to Play Role in New 'Addams Family' Spinoff 'Wednesday'

Christina Ricci found early success playing ice-cold, preternaturally precocious daughter Wednesday in "The Addams Family" (1990) and its sequel, "Addams Family Values" (1993). Now the 42-year-old actor is rejoining the fold – but, Variety reported, not in the same role as before.

Rather, Ricci will be playing an unspecified character in the upcoming TV series spinoff "Wednesday," while the title character is set to be portrayed by Jenna Ortega.

Deadline confirmed that "Details about Ricci's role are being kept under wraps to protect the surprise for fans, but...she plays a new character and not an older version of Wednesday."

Ricci was reportedly brought aboard as a replacement when the actor originally cast in the role, Thora Birch, left the series mid-production. Still, it was the Wednesday connection that led to the casting choice, Deadline detailed: "Ricci's performance as Wednesday in the Addams Family movies is so beloved for fans of the franchise that they launched a petition when the Netflix series was announced, calling for her to be cast in the show."

The original TV series, which ran on ABC for 64 episodes over two seasons (1964-1966), was based on a long-running series of single-panel comics drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams that depicted a ghoulish, yet chipper, family.

The series was a sitcom that satirized popular tropes of the American family, and starred Lisa Loring in the role of Wednesday, alongside John Astin as Gomer, the family patriarch; Carolyn Jones as the clan's (literally) vampy mother, Morticia; Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester; and Ken Weatherwax as Wednesday's big brother Pugsley. Rounding out the cast were Blossom Rock as Grandmama Addams, Ted Cassidy as the family butler, Lurch, and an uncredited actor (or actors) portraying Thing, a disembodied hand that served as an all-purpose helper around the house.

In the live-action '90s movies, Ricci shared the screen with Raul Julia as Gomex, Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester, Jimmy Workman as Pugsley, Judith Malina as Grandmama, Carel Struycken as Lurch, and Christopher Hart – or his hand, at any rate – as Thing.

Two CGI-animated films rebooted the franchise. Starring Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Nick Kroll, Finn Wolfhard, Bette Midler, and Snoop Dogg – with Chloë Grace Moretz voicing Wednesday – the films were released in 2019 and 2021.

"Directed by Tim Burton, 'Wednesday' is a coming-of-age series about Wednesday Addams as she heads off to become a student at Nevermore Academy where she will take on monsters, learn to use her psychic powers, and solve a mystery involving her very own parents," IGN detailed.

There has been no mention of any of Ricci's castmates from the '90s films also appearing on the series, although a pair of big-name actors – Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman – will play Morticia and Gomez (the "patriarch of the Addams family," Variety said), respectively.